


Angel

by JWade



Series: Angel [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Tear Rating: 4/10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-09 17:03:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 40,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12280752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JWade/pseuds/JWade
Summary: When Gabriel meets the vessels of the apocalypse and realizes that the younger one is his soulmate he is caught completely off guard. If only he can manage to avoid any skin contact between them he will be okay. Little did he know, he wasn't as successful at that as he thought he was.





	1. Chapter 1

Gabriel’s attention to detail was one reason he was so good at his job, which is why he was sitting here pushing the mop around this dirty floor and using very little of his grace to get the job done. He just used enough to get it perfectly clean on the first swipe. He had no intention of actually sitting here scrubbing the stupid floors, but anyone who happened by would see him working away. As far as anyone here was concerned he had been here for six years despite the fact that this was only his third day here. He had planted the illusion of him being polite, but quiet and not really approachable. He was very good at fading into the background when he needed to. 

Being so good at his job also had the advantage of not drawing the attention of hunters very often, if ever. This time was different there though. He was hunting for hunters. A very specific set of hunters to be exact. He knew they were less than a day from here. He also knew that the first death would take a day to reach the papers, so they probably got in last night, and he was expecting them here today. He had been waffling on this idea for years, but his curiosity finally did him in. He knew that it was nearly time and he wanted to see what they were made of. 

It was nearly time for his shift to end when they came walking in, and as soon as his eyes lit on the younger one, his breath hitched before he completely schooled his expression to one of polite joviality. He couldn’t keep himself from checking the younger man out, but did try to keep at least some physical distance between them. He couldn’t risk any skin contact, even as he flirted and joked away with them. He was surprised to find that he actually liked them. They were supposed to be just like Michael and Lucifer. Michael never laughed as easily as Dean. Hell, Michael didn’t even possess a sense of humor at all, and Sam…he was like night and day from Lucifer. He was warm and genuine, whereas Lucifer was cold and distant. If this test was to see how likable they were, they would have passed with flying colors, but no. This was to see how sharp they were. How good they were at reading between the lines. How much they would be willing to compromise if there was something in it for them. He had to be much more careful than he ever intended though.

He managed to hold himself to his chosen mask the entire time they were there, and push all the new revelations he had gotten to the back of his mind for the moment. There would be time to worry later. He was nothing if not professional. He could tell he had them completely snowed before they left, and as soon as he heard their car drive away he let out a long breath and slumped down the wall to sit on the floor he had just cleaned as he put his head in his hands and let all the turmoil that he had locked away to the forefront. This was a complete disaster. He would have to be very very careful here. He had known that his father was likely pissed at him, but he didn’t think he would be THIS pissed.

Once he managed to collect himself again he walked out and drive the ten year old Honda he had as a part of this particular ruse back to his apartment. While outside, the apartment looked like something a janitor would be able to be afford, the inside was the lap of luxury. This was where he didn’t need to hide. This was where he was free to just be himself. Before he turned on the television, he snapped his fingers to freeze Sam’s computer on Dean’s favorite website. While Sam would just blame Dean, it should get the older brother thinking that something weird was going on. 

He had to wait until after the bars closed before the evil little frat boy was on his way back to the frat house and he could spring his second trick. He knew that the hunters would be realizing that the haunting was a hoax, and probably thinking there wasn’t a case here. He wanted to make it obvious that there was so they would stick around. He never would have gone for something as out there as an alien abduction…not one with outward signs at least…if he hadn’t been baiting them. From there it should be easy to figure out what they were hunting at least, if not who he was. 

When they still seemed just as lost, he rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers again, causing Sam’s computer to appear on his table. They would both surely figure it out when the laptop was completely gone. I mean, sure, Sam could blame his brother for it again, but there were only so many places the hunter could hide it. When it wasn’t anywhere in their room or their car, he would start looking for another explanation. So far, he had imitated a ghost, an alien, and now a pixie with the theft. Unless they somehow walked into some sort of supernatural being convention, they had to hit on the idea that there was a trickster here. 

Later that night, his alarm went off that his third mark was leaving the lab, and he smirked. He was really going to enjoy this one. He perched invisibly on a lamppost as he watched the alligator spring up from the sewer and eat the disgusting little sadist. He made sure that the alligator was old too, so that his teeth were on the blunt side and he ate far more slowly. He watched in amusement a few hours later as the brothers crawled into the sewers looking for the alligator and couldn’t help but roll his eyes. It was one thing when he was impersonating other creatures, but this was ridiculous. As amusing as it was, it was also worrying. If they were this clueless, then they would be easy pickings for the apocalypse. 

He realized then that maybe he was counting on the wrong brother figuring things out. He was still thinking of them as Michael and Lucifer. Michael was always the one who paid more attention to detail and was quick to jump to, usually correct, conclusions. Maybe he should be trying to clue in the younger brother. Lucifer, for all his skill at playing other people, was remarkably easy to play himself so it wouldn’t have dawned on him to try this way. It was worth a shot though. He snapped his fingers letting the air out of their car’s tires and dropping Sam’s money clip at the scene. As an added bonus, he added a few hundred dollars to the money clip too. When Dean confronted him, Sam would know that he hadn’t been anywhere near the car, not to mention that he hadn’t had nearly that much money. Maybe he would start paying more attention. 

Sure enough, that afternoon, just before his shift ended again, they showed up with more questions and more than a little suspicion in their eyes. He didn’t notice Sam’s hand lightly brush against his as the younger hunter made his excuses to make his way ‘to the truck’. Like Gabriel couldn’t see through that a mile away. Gabriel knew he was heading to search his locker for evidence. He had made sure to leave a few candy wrappers and his current copy of the weekly world news that he got all his ideas for this town from. His brow furrowed in confusion as he heard Sam still trying to defend him and couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped when Sam mentioned going to his place to look for more evidence. He must have also checked the records to get his address while he was down there. It wasn’t like he would be able to get in anyway though. Gabriel had his apartment warded up tighter than Fort Knox. 

He had almost believed that clueing the younger hunter in was what got them in gear until a third, older, hunter showed up at the confrontation and he sighed. Apparently, they had just called in some help. Oh well. It was time for the last test. He offered the older brother his greatest desires if he would just look the other way. They actually passed this one for once, when he didn’t take him up on it. That was a point in their favor at least. They weren’t willing to compromise their morals. He just hoped it would be enough. The ‘boss fight’ played out perfectly on script, at least the new script he had thought up when he realized that he couldn’t let Sam get too close to him. He had planned for Dean to be the one to do the deed, so he made sure that the chainsaw guys kept Sam off to the side of the room, and the spare hunter as well. Best not to throw too many last minute changes into the mix, after all, while the girls that were beating Dean, kept him relatively close to Gabriel himself…or at least the clone he had snapped up when the fight started. 

When they finally left town, Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. He had avoided touching the younger hunter at all, thus keeping his own head off the chopping block. At least he would survive this mess, even if those two and the rest of the world were doomed.


	2. Chapter 2

As they were heading out of town, Sam’s head was reeling. He had caught the concerned glances from his brother, but there was no way he could tell him what he was feeling right now. Hell, HE didn’t even know what he was feeling beyond the fact that he was feeling something that he shouldn’t be for the monster they had just killed. The trip passed in a tense silence, but by the time they made it to their next port of call, Sam had managed to convince himself that it was just the trickster messing with his head, for some reason probably known only to him, and he had put it out of his mind. 

It took almost a week for Sam to notice anything off about himself, and by then his encounter with the trickster was far from his mind. Partially because he refused to think of it. He may not have made the connection anyway since the changes were so minor. He found himself needing to sleep less and less and having a lot more energy when he was awake despite only sleeping four hours or less a night. Sure, he and Dean always joked about hunters only getting four hours of sleep a night, but that was only when they were actively working a case, and even then, it wasn’t every night. This was. It was strange but not really enough to start worrying overmuch about.

By the time the month was up, he had realized that food was tasting differently. At first, he had just thought they had a string of crappy luck when it came to diners, but Dean surely would have said something about it. He never had any trouble airing his displeasure when his food wasn’t up to par. He might have let it go once or twice but now that he was thinking on it, Sam couldn’t remember the last time he had a meal that tasted right. It seemed to have been a gradual change though. He was now down to sleeping less than two hours a night too. Dean had yet to notice, and Sam wasn’t sure how to bring it up. I mean, sleeping less and funny tasting food wasn’t exactly something to write home about. It did have him a little on edge though. 

It wasn’t until the tingling started after another month that Sam found himself starting to really worry. It was like something was bubbling under his skin and trying to get out and it was very unsettling. That and the fact that he didn’t really sleep at all anymore had him finally bringing it up to his brother. “Dean, I think something weird is going on with me?” he said nervously. 

“What is it?” Dean asked eyes snapping up to Sam in alarm. He knew that Sam wouldn’t say something like that lightly, so he was instantly concerned. 

“It’s just a bunch of little things that don’t seem to make any sense. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t sleep anymore.”

“I see you go to bed every night, and you don’t seem any more tired than usual,” Dean said narrowing his eyes searchingly at his brother, worrying about him now in a different way. 

“Yeah, I go to bed every night, and I just lay there for hours. It’s not just that I can’t get to sleep. I don’t even get tired or drowsy. I haven’t slept a wink in weeks, but I’m perfectly fine.” He saw Dean’s look begin to get appraising and it was making him even more nervous. “That’s not all though. Food just doesn’t taste right anymore. I can’t figure out exactly what it is, but it’s different.”

“Different how?” 

“Like…I don’t know…not like food. More like…I can’t even put it into words,” Sam said confusedly and he could see that Dean wasn’t doing much better with his oh so descriptive explanation. “Then the last few days there’s been this kind of tingling…all over. It feels like there’s something inside me trying to bust out.”

Now Dean’s eyes really were wide in alarm. “Okay. That’s it. We’re going to Bobby’s,” he said grabbing their stuff and packing up as quickly as possible. He had been getting more and more nervous about everything that their Dad had said about him needing to save Sam. All that mess with Gordon just had him even more on edge about it, and now this. No. He needed help. They would figure out what was going on with Sam and then fix it if it was the last thing they did. 

“You don’t think…this is what dad meant do you?” Sam asked shakily, despite having already seen the answer in his brother’s eyes. 

“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out though. You, me, and Bobby. We’ll handle it. As long as you’re still you, we have time,” Dean told him, practically dragging his brother to the car and hightailing it towards South Dakota, breaking about a dozen traffic laws along the way. He called Bobby as soon as they were on the road and gave him the rundown of the current symptoms and Bobby was hitting the books as he was waiting for them. Dean ordered Sam to tell him if anything else strange popped up, even if it seemed like nothing. 

They made it to Bobby’s in a day and a half and it took even less time for Sam to start getting annoyed at the way they constantly watched him like he was getting ready to hulk out or something. He tried to ignore it though. Just like he tried to ignore the fact that Dean started sleeping with a gun under his pillow. Bobby was very methodical in trying to narrow it down though. He had Sam testing his limits constantly. He had him working out and running nonstop for about two days to see if he would ever get tired. It wasn’t until Sam actually managed to lift a whole car like it was nothing before he realized that this might actually be really serious. That was when they started locking Sam in the panic room when they were sleeping. Just as a precaution they said. As long he stayed himself, he was still allowed out during the day, but they didn’t want to risk him changing when they were asleep. 

Another thing Bobby was testing was his reactions to food. Trying to figure out exactly how his taste buds had changed. The food that Sam usually liked, salads and lean baked meats got the worst reviews. Greasy and fried food was a little better, but still not that great. Fruits were the best that they tried so far, most fruits anyway. Bitter fruits like lemons and limes weren’t so great. Bananas were about the same as the salads. Things like apples, peaches, watermelons, kiwis, berries of all kinds, they weren’t bad. Still not as satisfying as food used to be though. Bobby got a strange glint in his eye at that and Sam could tell that he was forming a theory, but he said he had to go shopping first. 

While he was gone, Dean kept fussing over Sam, as usual, and it was driving the hunter crazy. Bobby usually kept him occupied enough that it didn’t get too overwhelming, but without Bobby there, he had nothing to distract him from his constant worry. At one point Sam got up and Dean said, “Where are you going?” getting up like he was about to follow him. 

Sam couldn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes. “I need to take a piss, Dean, unless you want to come with me and hold it for me,” he snapped irritably as he stormed out. 

“No need to be such a bitch about it,” Dean called after him. A few minutes later, he wondered what was taking Sam so long and went to knock on the door. When he didn’t get an answer he busted it in and started cursing. The bathroom was empty, and only the fact that there looked like there had been a struggle had him thinking that maybe Sam hadn’t gone completely willingly. He wondered how he hadn’t heard the mirror breaking, or the shelf being pulled off the wall. Of course, there was still the possibility that whatever was changing Sam drove him into a rage and he did all that himself before taking off, but he chose to believe the best. At least until he had evidence to the contrary. 

When Bobby got back about ten minutes later, Dean rushed out to meet him. “Sam’s gone!” 

“What the hell?! You lost him?!” Bobby said abandoning the results of his grocery shopping to head inside and do some investigating of his own as Dean explained everything he knew. Bobby did pick up on something that Dean had missed. A faint trace of sulfur on the bathroom windowsill. 

“You don’t think he…went willingly do you?” Dean asked wondering if he sounded as much like a little kid as he felt in that moment. 

“No. I doubt it. Whatever he was turning into it wasn’t a demon. I was testing him with holy water every day and there was never even the slightest change in his reaction to it. There would have been more behavioral changes if he was turning into a demon too. If it’s even possible for a human to turn into a demon,” Bobby told him. “Go bring the groceries in while I hit the books,” he ordered heading into the study. 

It wasn’t until Dean was putting the groceries away and saw what all Bobby had bought that he realized what Bobby’s theory could be. “Trickster?” Dean asked incredulously as he took in the amount and variety of sweets in the bags. Everything from pies to cakes to cookies to an assortment of candy bars and lollipops, and ice cream. He was nice enough to put the ice cream away at least before he barreled into the study after Bobby. “You think he’s turning into a trickster?! Is that even possible?”

“Damned if I know, but it’s a theory. We kinda have to find him before we can test it,” Bobby said pointedly, not really wanting to discuss a theory so far-fetched without more than a haunch to go on.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam woke in a near panic. Just the fact that he was waking up at all was enough to do it. It was amazing how quickly one could get used to not sleeping, and it told him that something was really wrong here. It was a moment before he remembered what had happened, not that there was much to remember at all. He had been in the bathroom when someone was suddenly in there with him. He’d tried to fight him off and call for Dean, but he wasn’t sure if he managed to do so before the next thing he knew he was waking up here…wherever here was. 

He forced down his panic and checked for weapons, but of course he didn’t have any. Dean and Bobby hadn’t been letting him carry weapons since they realized that something was wrong with him. Dean and Bobby. Shit. What would they think happened? Would they think that whatever was changing him had finally gone too far and he took off on his own? Would they even be looking for him? No, that was stupid. Of course, they would be looking for him, if for no other reason than to put a bullet in his head. The question was whether they would give him a chance to explain before they did. A few weeks ago, he wouldn’t have had to question that for a second, but the way things had been going lately, he wasn’t so sure. 

He sighed heavily and decided that he might as well look around. Hopefully he would be able to find something to use as a weapon along the way, but he couldn’t just stand here forever. The first person he ran across was Andy, much to his surprise and the kid seemed just as scared and nervous as Sam felt. As they were trying to figure out what was going on, Sam heard banging and screaming and ran towards the sound. He yanked on the door and it completely came off in his hand. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised. If he could lift a car effortlessly, then surely he could yank a door off, steel lock or not. He tossed it aside just in time to catch Ava as she fell into his arms in hysterics. Something in him immediately recoiled from her, but he forced himself not to show it. That was the last thing she needed right now. 

Once he had her calmed down though, he couldn’t help but let go quickly and step away. Some foreign instinct just kept screaming at him to do so. It was this same foreign instinct that had him doubting whether she was telling the truth or not, but he put it out of his mind. Why would she lie? It wasn’t easy for him since he was used to trusting his instincts, but these felt different than his normal instincts somehow and he wasn’t about to trust them the same way. It wasn’t until they met up with the two others that were there, Jake and Lilly, that he realized they were all Azazel’s special children and he started getting even more nervous. 

With Andy’s help, he managed to get a message out to his brother…at least he hoped it got to his brother…and all they could do from there was wait. It was better to stay put until he found them then go rushing off somewhere and getting lost. Lily didn’t listen though, having snuck off while they were all sleeping and ended up dead. That morning, Sam noticed another change that he was undergoing. It took a few minutes before he realized that it was anything more than an itchy back, but the more he scratched it, the worse it got and it was centered around six different points which was also weird. Once he realized it wasn’t going to go away, he forced himself to ignore it and turned his attention back to the problem. 

Once he was visited in his dreams by Azazel, he knew that he had to do something. When he realized that Ava was the one behind killing Lily, and now Andy, before Jake killed her. This was getting way out of hand. If there was one upside, it was the fact that whatever changes he was undergoing that caused him to have super strength made him a match for Jake in a fight. It didn’t stop the soldier from getting the better of him for a time though. As Sam was fighting him off he threw up an arm to push him away, but then Jake went flying. 

 

Gabriel had barely noticed the fact that he was weakening slightly. It was such a gradual thing, and it wasn’t that much yet, but he definitely noticed it when he felt a tug on his grace and he cursed and disappeared heading towards that tug. He desperately hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was, but he didn’t know what else it could possibly be. It wasn’t until he arrived in time to see Sam Winchester toss another guy about fifty feet and through a wall that he knew he was doomed. He also knew that he had to stop this before Sam was forced to use his power any more. Untrained powers running wild were pretty much the definition of a bad idea. He could seriously hurt himself or others. That in mind, he snapped his fingers and the kid that Sam had tossed away got sent to a nice little detox room while the curse he was under wore off. Gabriel could feel the taint in this town, and wondered if Sam was far enough along in his changes to feel it too. Even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to tell exactly what it was. He wouldn’t realize that to kill anyone within the area of this curse would set the demon blood in his system deeper, and Gabriel didn’t have the slightest clue what kind of effect that would have with the changes he was already undergoing. 

He was considering his options, mainly whether to reveal himself to Sam or not, as the hunter looked around wildly, trying to figure out where the other kid had gone and possibly even sensing Gabriel there. Before he could make a decision, he could sense a demon behind him and he spun, dropping his invisibility now. It would just hinder him in a fight, and it was useless against a prince of hell anyway. He heard the gasp from Sam, and just ignored it for the time being. He had bigger fish to fry and he wasn’t taking his eyes off this demon. 

“You shouldn’t be here, little pagan,” Azazel said cruelly circling him. 

“Azazel…still playing Lilith’s little errand boy?” he taunted. It was always better if you could make our opponent make the first move. Especially if you pissed them off to get it. It made them reckless. “Shouldn’t you be groveling and kissing her ass right now?” 

That was all it took for Azazel to get in the fight. Gabriel called out his blade just in time to stop the long knife that the demon wielded and Azazel’s eyes went wide at the sight of it. “How…”

Gabriel cut off his voice before he could say anymore. He knew that he would have to tell Sam now, given recent developments, but he wanted to do it on his terms and from there the fight began in earnest. He didn’t notice Dean and Bobby arriving or Sam rushing over to them as they all watched the fight almost spellbound and when he finally got the killing blow, the bright light beaming from Azazel’s corpse nearly blinded them…well…all but Sam. He didn’t seem phased by the light any more than Gabriel himself was. As if he needed any more proof that his suspicions were correct. 

The four of them stood there staring at each other for a moment before Dean broke the ice. “What the hell did you do to my brother, you bastard!?”

“You think this whole setup was my doing?” Gabriel laughed at the preposterousness of it. 

“No, I don’t mean this. I mean whatever has been going on with him lately. All these weird things he’s dealing with,” Dean snapped. 

Gabriel sighed and he knew that he had to deal with this situation but he had no idea how. He did want to get some more information though. Mainly how far along the changes were. “What kind of weird things?” he asked, trying to be non-chalant about it. 

“You think he did it?” Sam asked curiously, wondering how on earth Dean could have come to that conclusion. 

“It’s a theory,” Bobby cut in, before looking at the trickster and Sam realized that they could talk more about the theory and how it came to pass later when they didn’t have a trickster to interrogate. 

“I ask again, what kind of weird things?” Gabriel asked pointedly. 

“I don’t sleep anymore, food tastes…wrong, I’ve got this tingling under my skin, and this morning my back started itching like crazy and it won’t go away,” Sam told him, hoping that he had an answer and could and would stop it, whatever it was. 

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose in consternation. “It’s not my doing…not exactly…but I do know what’s going on,” he finally admitted. If it was that far along, he couldn’t exactly take any more time to figure out how to deal with it. Sam was going to need help, and soon. 

“Then fix it!” Dean ordered. 

“I can’t,” Gabriel said with a sigh. “It can’t be undone.”

“Well you damn well better find a way or…” That was as far as he got before Gabriel snapped his fingers and Dean and Bobby were gone. 

“What the hell did you do to them?!” Sam rounded on him heatedly. 

“Relax Samsquatch. They’re fine. They’re just in…a waiting room, so to speak. We need to talk.”

“You really think I won’t tell them anything you tell me?” Sam snapped, not liking how vulnerable he was feeling facing off against such a powerful being alone. 

“I’m sure you will, but it will be easier to explain without commentary, threats, and questions from the peanut gallery.”

Sam narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the demi-god, and only the fact that he seemed to actually be willing to explain kept him from throwing a fit to rival one of Dean’s. “Fine. We can talk. But can we at least do it somewhere else? This place gives me the creeps.”

“Sure thing Sammykins,” Gabriel said as he snapped his fingers and they reappeared in a comfortable living room.


	4. Chapter 4

“First things first, sit down and take your shirt off,” Gabriel told him. 

“The hell I will!” Sam snapped, as a blush took over his face. 

“Okay fine. Keep being uncomfortable,” Gabriel said with a shrug and he paced, trying to figure out where to start. 

“You said you wanted to talk,” Sam snapped again. 

“Look, I’m about to have to reveal my deepest darkest secret here, along with a whole bunch of other personal crap. You can at least give me a minute to wrap my head around it and decide where to start,” Gabriel snapped right back. Sam just glared at him for another minute until Gabriel decided to start with a question. One that didn’t really have much bearing on it, but would give him a starting point at least, and he did want to know how the heck this could have happened with him being so careful. “When we met at that college, did you ever touch me at all?” 

“What? What the hell does that have to do with anything? And wouldn’t you know?” 

“I was trying to be careful not to touch you, and I didn’t notice it if we did, but we must have, somehow and I’m trying to figure out how, and it has everything to do with this. Think hard, Sam.”

Sam shot him a suspicious look, but did as he was asked and thought back over every interaction trying to remember before his eyes widened. “When we were on the stairs, and I said I was going to check the truck…you were leaning on the banister and I think my hand might have brushed against yours. Now what does that have to do with this? Dean touched you too when he stabbed you and he’s fine.”

“First of all, Deano touching me wouldn’t have done any harm, and even if it would have, he just touched a clone I created. It may have made a difference, it may not have. See Sam…physical contact with…with a…a…soulmate…has lasting effects.”

“A WHAT?!” Sam bellowed. 

Gabriel just winced, but otherwise ignored the outburst and kept going. “Usually soulmates are the same species so there aren’t any real changes to speak of, but sometimes, if they aren’t, the weaker species begins to transform into the stronger.”

“So, I’m becoming a trickster?!” 

“No…You’re becoming an…an archangel,” Gabriel managed to get out. 

“A…wh-…but…I…you…”

“Gabriel, at your service,” he said with a flourished bow, trying not to let on how much this was affecting him. 

Sam just fell to the couch like he was a puppet whose strings had been cut. He managed to stay conscious thankfully. Fainting would not have helped his image here. “I can’t…I’m…They’re not…Angels…” Sam couldn’t quite manage to form a full thought. 

“You are. The demon blood is already in the process of burning away so that won’t affect anything…angels are real, even though they are mostly giant dicks, which is why I ran away and have been hiding here on earth posing as a trickster,” Gabriel answered his not fully formed questions, and noticed the way Sam was squirming on the couch. “Now are you going to take your shirt off and let me help you with your wings or not?” That was the last straw for Sam, who when he woke up would be mortified to know that he actually had fainted, and Gabriel couldn’t help but let out a loud guffaw of laughter for a good few minutes before he snapped up some smelling salts. 

“What…” Sam said groggily as he was waking up. 

“You fainted,” Gabriel said, his laughs having turned to chuckles by now, that only increased when Sam shoved him away and he fell to the floor. Once he had collected himself he stood back up and said, “That itching is only going to keep getting worse until you take care of it.”

“What…what are you going to do?” Sam asked nervously. 

“Well, if you’ll let me, I’ll massage the oil you need into the budding joints that will stop the itching,” Gabriel said amused. 

“I…I have…wings…I don’t…”

“Well you don’t have wings yet. You’re starting to grow wings. It’s quite the unpleasant sensation if not properly taken care of,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“Unpleasant?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“Ok, completely and utterly maddening. I was trying to sugar-coat it for you,” Gabriel said with a roll of his eyes. 

“Don’t,” Sam snapped with a glare. 

Gabriel snorted in amusement. “I just don’t want you to get the vapors on me again,” he teased, which just increased Sam’s glare exponentially. “Sorry, kiddo. Even for angels, looks can’t kill.” When the glare didn’t abate, Gabriel just shook his head. “You know, if you want to do this the hard way, that’s fine, but it would be much easier to get through all this without all the hostility.”

“You expect me to not be hostile? Archangel or not, you’re a murderer,” Sam said heatedly. 

“I am, am I?” Gabriel asked with a mocking smirk. “Tell me honestly, Sam. What would you do if you found someone torturing and killing a child? If you knew that the police wouldn’t do anything about it, and he would just be out there doing it again before long. What would you do?” 

“I’d probably kill him, of course,” Sam told him. “What does that have to do with…”

“Now imagine if you could see everything they’ve ever done. Not just one child, but dozens. One look into his mind and you could hear every scream, feel the terror rolling off of every single one of them, hear them begging for mommy and daddy to save them, see their blood dripping onto the floor with each passing minute, see the teartracks on their cheeks as they sobbed and pleaded for mercy. You could see how he kept them alive for days, just to hear their screams. Tell me what you would do to him then?” 

Sam was white as a sheet by now at the graphic descriptions. “Wh-what are you saying?” Sam was starting to get the hint but needed to hear it. 

“That was what I just finished working on,” Gabriel said tightly. “At that college where we met…that professor was a peodophile. He had raped dozens of girls, the youngest was fourteen. The researcher was just as into torture as the guy I just finished with. He hadn’t completely moved onto humans yet, but he was on the verge. The animals that I healed in that lab…there aren’t even words for the depravities that he visited on them. The kid who got abducted by aliens…there was still a spark of light left in his soul. It was small but it was there. He had a chance for redemption, however slim it was. Maybe being on the other side of the equation will give him a little empathy for all the young pledges he sodomized with that paddle. If not, I’ll be back for him in a few years when he’s too far gone to save. You call me a murderer, but I’m the archangel of justice. This is my job…skipped out of heaven or not.”

Gabriel wouldn’t normally have defended himself so vociferously. He didn’t usually care what anyone thought about him, but if he could get past Sam’s hostility, this whole situation would be far easier to deal with. Whether anything ever came out of the soulmate part or not, Sam would need help with all the changes he was undergoing. With learning how to function in this new aspect of his being, and it was Gabriel’s responsibility to help him. He could almost see the anger and hate fading from the hunter’s face, even though he was completely speechless, and Gabriel gave him a softer smile as he stepped over and put his hands on Sam’s shoulder. “Come on, Sammich. Out of the shirt. Let me help,” he said gently and this time Sam obeyed without a word as he turned his back to Gabriel. 

Gabriel stripped his own shirt off and called his wings out, reaching back to squeeze some oil out of the nearest gland and started rubbing it into Sam’s back, mind flashing back to all the times he had helped the little seraphs through their wings sprouting before he pushed the nostalgia from his mind, and turned his attention back to the man in front of him who was nearly sagging in relief. “Feeling better?” he asked. 

“Y-yeah. Much,” Sam said blushing brightly, not able to see the smile on Gabriel’s face at that pronouncement. It was still itching quite a bit, but the urgency was fading with every pass of Gabriel’s hands. He couldn’t believe how talented those hands were. It felt like…well…heaven. “Will this need to be done again?” 

“Three times a day is best. Twice a day at least unless you want to get as bad off as you were this time,” he told him, not pausing in his ministrations, except to get more oil from his own wings. Once Sam’s wings were formed enough to produce their own oils he would be fine, but until then he would need help. 

“Have…have you ever done this before?” Sam asked, just trying to keep some conversation going so that he wouldn’t have to think about the casual intimacy of the situation. 

Gabriel closed his eyes against the wash of pain that crept up on him again at that question, but given the circumstances, couldn’t deny Sam an answer. “Thousands of times. All the little seraphs up in heaven went through this, and I was usually the one who cared for them, so this tended to fall under my purview as well.”


	5. Chapter 5

“You said something about angels being dicks?” Sam asked curiously wondering how Gabriel had gone from raising them and caring for them to…well…this. 

Gabriel sighed. He hated talking about this, but Sam needed to know. “I…I was the youngest of the four archangels. We were…closer than brothers. We were…everything to each other. Michael and Lucifer were completely inseparable and they raised Raphael and myself, so when father created the seraphs, they were given into our care, but Michael and Lucifer…they figured they’d done their job with me and Raphy, and Raphy just wasn’t into kids, but I took to them like a duck to water and everything was wonderful. It was all so perfect. Heaven was filled with love and laughter and joy. It was home. Then Lucifer fell and everything went to shit. Michael was a broken man. He lost his other half. His twin. They were split from the same grace even. Soon after that, father left and he was forced to take over in his place. Michael…he thought that if he could finish our father’s plan that everything would go back to the way it was. He thought father would come home and Lucifer could come back too once humanity was ended and there was no more reason for him to rebel.”

“Wait…humanity ended?” Sam jumped in shock and only the strong hand on his shoulder kept him from spinning around as the other hand kept working over the spots on his back. 

“Father’s final plan. The apocalypse. It was always the end game and it’s close. At least it was before I interfered. It was never supposed to be this soon though. It was supposed to happen when it was spoiled beyond redemption. Michael though…he turned all the seraphs into an army. Brainwashed them into the perfect soldiers. I…I was an archangel though. He couldn’t brainwash me the same way so he had to turn to…other methods of persuasion. I couldn’t take anymore, so I faked my death and ran. I’ve been hiding here ever since.”

“What about…Raphael, you said?” 

“Raphy…he was…he saw what happened to me when I tried to resist and he fell into line. He shut off every emotion he ever had and became a creature of cold efficiency and cruelty. He buried himself so deep behind those walls that I doubt he even remembers who he used to be anymore.”

“But you remember,” Sam said sadly, feeling for Gabriel. 

“I’ll remember for the both of us,” Gabriel said melancholically, before he perked up. “So yeah. Going to heaven…once you can get there that is…not a good idea. And not just because you and I completely derailed all their plans.”

Sam had been about to make a comment about the obvious mask that Gabriel threw up, but then that last comment registered. “Wait…how did we derail their plans? And you said the apocalypse wasn’t close anymore because of your interference…”

“Yeah. Okay. That’s another long story. I’m done here by the way,” Gabriel said standing up and snapping his fingers, hiding his wings away and replacing both their shirts before Sam managed to turn around and face him. “The apocalypse is essentially a big prize fight, here on earth, between Michael and Lucifer. The shockwaves will destroy all life on earth. In order to interact on earth, they need vessels. It’s kinda like being possessed by a demon, but more complete. There aren’t many souls that can handle being a vessel to an archangel though without combusting. Those souls go through bloodlines. Michael’s vessel and Lucifer’s vessel have to be brothers at the end. They have been manipulating the bloodlines for centuries. Lucifer’s bloodline came through your mother’s family and Michael’s came through your father’s.” He paused a moment for Sam to catch up. 

“So, me and Dean…that’s…that’s what the demons wanted with me. I’m supposed to be Lucifer’s vessel?!” Sam was quickly getting hysterical. 

“You WERE supposed to be Lucifer’s vessel. You’ll be an archangel in your own right now, and completely unusable. Before all that though, they needed to get your brother into hell to break the first seal, probably by pushing him into making a deal to bring you back after they killed you. Then they need you to break the last seal to let Lucifer out of his cage. None of that matters anymore though, because it’s impossible. They would have to start over from the beginning and only Dean’s children could be used to recreate the bloodlines they need and it would be hundreds of years before they could merge correctly again. If Dean doesn’t have children, they would have to start from scratch and we’re talking tens of thousands of years for that. Needless to say, they won’t be happy at all that everything went up in smoke which just makes it more important for me to teach you to use your powers and fight like an archangel, because sooner or later they WILL come after us both.”

“Oh God,” Sam said putting his head in his hands hopelessly for a second before his head snapped up. “Oh crap…Can I say that? I mean…I’m an angel now…” he said alarmed worried that he was about to be smote. 

Gabriel couldn’t help but laugh. “You can say whatever you want, Samsquatch,” Gabriel told him. “Dear old Dad doesn’t give a crap. I wouldn’t recommend saying stuff like that in front of Mikey, but if you’re in front of Mikey, you’ll have bigger concerns than your language.”

“A-are you sure?” Sam asked nervously. 

“Oh please. You should hear some of the rants I’ve gone on directly to him over the years. Let’s just say they were only cut short by the fact that there are only so many four letter words in existence,” he said with a chuckle. 

“This is a nightmare,” Sam said putting his head back in his hands now that he knew he was safe. 

“I know,” Gabriel said sympathetically putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “It’s a lot. If I had realized that we had been bound back there, I could have taken my time and eased you into it a little more, but I honestly didn’t know until I felt the tugging on my grace when you used your powers.”

“So, wait…am I using your powers or my own?” Sam asked confused. 

“It’s complicated,” Gabriel said with a sigh. “Remember how I said that Michael and Lucifer were split from the same grace?” Sam nodded. “That’s essentially what’s happening with us now. My grace is splitting in two to share with you.”

“So, will that make you lose some of your power?” Sam asked concerned. 

“Not exactly. Not for long anyway. As it siphons into you, it replenishes in me. I’ll be a little weaker until you’re fully grown into your powers from the constant drain, but nothing really noticeable and once you’re ‘filled up’ so to speak, we’ll both be topped off back to the same level I was before.”

“So, you have been weaker, but you haven’t noticed because it’s so slight?” Sam was trying to understand. 

“Yeah. I mean if I had tried to create a bunch of new dimensions or play with time too much, I may have noticed, but I rarely use anywhere near my full power, so no. I didn’t notice,” he said with a shrug. 

“New dimensions? Playing with time? That’s possible? I’ll…I’ll be able to do that too?” Sam asked starting to feel overwhelmed again. 

“Easy, Sammy,” Gabriel said amusedly. “No need to start looking ahead too much. It’ll be quite a while before you have access to that much power. We’ll start slow and work our way up.”

“Why are you so willing to help me with all this? I mean…you’re sitting here answering questions you probably don’t want to answer, dredging up old demons that you’d probably prefer to stay buried, and giving up who knows how much time to help me. What do you get out of it?” 

Gabriel gave him a wry smile. “Well first of all, it’s my responsibility. I started this, however unintentionally it may have been. It’s only fair that I help you deal with it. Secondly, not much point in averting the apocalypse if we’re going to have an archangel supernova with you not understanding your power anyway. Thirdly…well never mind thirdly,” Gabriel said, slight blush tinging his cheeks for a second before he regained control over his vessel. 

“What’s thirdly?” Sam asked gently. He couldn’t imagine it could possibly be worse than everything else they had talked about here, and that blush that he just managed to catch sight of had his curiosity peaked. 

“Look. Sam. Whatever ends up coming of it in the future…you’re my soulmate. I’d be an idiot if I just threw that away without a second glance,” Gabriel said refusing to look at him. 

Sam’s eyes widened as he finally remembered the whole soulmate thing Gabriel had mentioned back at the beginning. “S-soulmate…I…I don’t…”

“Relax, Samsquatch. I’m not asking for anything here, and I’m not expecting anything. Whatever happens will happen. I’m just…not running from it anymore,” he said with an uncomfortable shrug, and wasn’t that a new thing for him. Not running. If it hadn’t been for the other reasons he gave Sam, he might still be running, but there was no point now. He was in this. For better or worse. 

“Oh, and one other thing you need to know, sooner rather than later…you need to be very careful sleeping with any female humans. Angels are very fertile, and human methods of contraception don’t actually work for us. You’ll need to learn how to use your powers to prevent that first. Having a baby with a human is a huge no-no. Like world destroying no-no.”

Sam just shrugged. He wasn’t really keen on sleeping around under normal circumstances, and now…well…it just wouldn’t feel right. Not now that he had a soulmate in his life. Not until he figured out what, if anything, he wanted from that. Oh, he would learn. Just because he wasn’t intending to didn’t mean that he would never change his mind or that things couldn’t just happen, but it wasn’t really a high priority for him. When Gabriel realized that he wasn’t making a fuss about that aspect, he missed the slight hopeful smile that slipped onto Gabriel’s face for a second before he replaced his mask.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam took a deep breath as he tried to come to terms with everything he’d learned here. “Ok. Just a few more questions for now,” he said. 

“Shoot.”

“Why is this happening? I mean, I get the whole soulmate touching thing, but there has to be a reason beyond that,” Sam asked. 

Gabriel grimaced. “You don’t want to know.”

“Yeah. I really do. How bad can it be?” Sam asked. He knew that the question would drive him crazy until he could get an answer. 

Gabriel sighed. Given how badly Sam had reacted to the whole idea of soulmates, this likely wouldn’t end well, but it seemed he would just have to bite the bullet. He had promised himself when he started this that he would be completely open with Sam and answer any questions he had. It really was the only way to go here. He just wished he hadn’t asked this particular one just yet. “Because having children across species is always problematic, so the soul itself reaches out and fits itself to the stronger soulmate in order to prevent those problems.” He could see Sam’s breathing speed up as the thought of having children with Gabriel overwhelmed him, and he rushed to add, “It doesn’t mean we have to have babies, Sam. It’s no different than being able to have babies as humans. You have no less choice than you always have on that. I say again, I’m not asking for anything or expecting anything here.”

Sam took a steadying breath before he let it out in a rush. “Yeah. I know. I get it. It’s just…”

“That’s why I said you didn’t want to know,” Gabriel said wryly seeing that the crisis was averted. 

“Right. Yeah,” Sam said uncomfortably. If Gabriel told him that again he would definitely take it into consideration. He had already proven that he would tell him anything he NEEDED to know, and he didn’t know if he could take anymore shocks right now. In fact, he would save the rest of his questions for the time being. Except, “Is there anything else I need to know right now?”

“No, Samsquatch. You can take some time and let all this sink in,” Gabriel said with slight amusement having seen that whole thought process take place on the hunter’s face. That would be another thing he would have to teach him. Masks. Allowing people to see you so completely just gave them the opportunity to manipulate you, and for a being with so much power…it wasn’t really a good idea. 

“How much of this can I tell Dean and Bobby?” he asked. Despite what he’d said before, he would give the archangel a chance to limit his spilling of his guts. He was feeling a lot more disposed towards him now, knowing everything he did, and it wouldn’t only be Sam’s secrets he would be telling. 

“I get that they are a big part of your life. If you can trust them to keep it to themselves, you can tell them whatever you want. Just let me know if you leave something out, so I don’t accidentally spill the beans.”

“So…you’re going to be around then?” Sam asked not sure if he was glad of that or not.

“Of course. I have to teach you don’t I. Not to mention helping with your wings. I mean, we can try and do the majority of the work at night when they are sleeping, but I’ll still need to be close during the day too in case I need to help you reign things in if you start to lose control.”

“I guess this whole not being able to sleep thing has it’s upside,” Sam joked tensely. 

“Well it’s not that you CAN’T sleep. You can, it just takes a little practice to get into the right state of mind to slip into a dream state. You probably won’t care much for a while, having spent most of your life sleeping, but after a few hundred years, you’ll probably appreciate the break,” Gabriel told him. “Oh and food…I’m not really sure what it tastes like as a human, but there isn’t much that tastes like anything more than the individual molecules as an angel. Sweets are the best, hence my sweet tooth, but you can just not eat at all if you prefer,” Gabriel told him, trying to explain the ‘strange things’ that he had mentioned before. “Also, that feeling bubbling up under your skin is your powers growing. It’s nothing to worry about unless it starts getting really painful. That means you’re about to lose control of them and if I’m ever not there when that happens call me immediately.”

“Okay. Got it. Can…can we get back to Dean now. He’s probably going nuts, by now,” Sam told him. 

 

Two Hours Earlier:

Dean and Bobby landed on their asses in the dirt…or what they thought was dirt, and Dean immediately started cursing. Once he had calmed down, he turned to Bobby, “What do you think that asshole is doing to Sam?” he asked worriedly. 

“Well he seemed perfectly willing to answer questions before you started running off at the mouth and got us sent here, so I’d hazard a guess that he’s answering Sam’s questions,” Bobby said with a shrug, hoping he was right. He wouldn’t have anywhere to begin trying to get out of a place a trickster stashed them in anyway. 

“If that’s all it was, why send us away?” 

“Because you couldn’t keep your damn mouth shut,” Bobby snapped irritably. Now that he was looking around he had a good idea where they were…or at least the inspiration of this particular area, and he was not amused. “He probably figured it would be easier to talk to Sam without you yelling and threatening him. 

Dean growled and kicked a nearby toadstool before he too stopped and looked around and his eyes widened. He experimentally broke off a tree branch and nibbled on it for a moment before he grinned and dipped it into the toadstool he just kicked. Bobby just rolled his eyes. For someone who didn’t trust the trickster as far as he could throw him, he sure was quick to eat something the guy had his hands in. It wasn’t until Dean leaned over the chocolate river that he galvanized himself into movement and pulled him back. “Are you nuts? Have you ever SEEN Willy Wonka?” 

Dean just shrugged rather sheepishly. “Hey, that kid was being greedy. I’m just thirsty. We just spent how long fighting demons before ending up stuck here?” he said defensively. 

“At least be smart about it,” Bobby said grabbing him a wafer teacup off a nearby tree and filling it up in the river before handing it to him. “Idjit,” he added gruffly. 

Once he was no longer hungry and thirsty, Dean started getting impatient. “How long do you think he’s going to keep us here?” 

“Hell if I know,” Bobby said resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “What I do know is that your brother will find a way to get us out, with or without his help.”

“You really think so?” Dean asked hopefully. “I mean…if he’s turning into a trickster too…”

“He’s still Sam,” Bobby said pointedly, because he refused to consider any other option. Finally, after they had been there for about two hours, they suddenly found themselves back in Bobby’s house with Sam and Dean grabbed him into a hug. 

Sam knew that Gabriel was hanging around invisibly somewhere, but he had asked him to stay out of sight until he could explain. Gabriel could definitely see the sense in that what with the way they seemed to react to his very presence. He didn’t plan to hide forever, but long enough for Sam to explain what he was going to. “Ok so what did the douche have to say? You get any answers?” Dean asked impatiently. 

“Yeah. I did. And it’s a long story,” Sam said with a sigh, plopping down on the couch. 

“Give us the cliffs notes version first,” Dean ordered, not wanting to listen to a whole lot of beating around the bush. 

“Well he’s not a trickster first of all. He’s actually an archangel. Gabriel to be exact,” Sam started and was fully expecting the exclamations of disbelief from his brother. 

“Oh, come on! Angels aren’t real. You actually fell for that crap?”

“Course angels are real you idjit,” Bobby cut in. “What you think hell and demons are real but heaven and angels aren’t? Whether he actually is one, I’m not so sure about,” Bobby cut in. 

“He is, Bobby. Trust me,” Sam told him. 

“Seriously, Sam?” Dean said frustrated. 

“Yes, seriously, now are you going to let me finish explaining?” When Dean waved his hand in a ‘go on’ gesture, Sam continued. “Apparently my hand brushed against his at some point back at the college and connected with his grace which is turning me into an archangel too.” Sam wasn’t about to tell them about the whole soulmates thing. Not yet at least, but he had worked out a pretty good explanation. 

“Just because you brushed against his hand? Seriously? What, the guy goes around never touching anyone?” Dean asked skeptically. 

“Well apparently there are very few souls able to handle an archangel, so it’s pretty rare to meet one. He doesn’t have to keep from touching anyone at all,” Sam told him. 

“So, your soul can but mine can’t? I touched him when I stabbed him,” Dean pointed out. 

“You touched a clone that he had created to take the hit. Not him,” Sam told him, not wanting to explain that yes, Dean could handle an archangel, but no, he wouldn’t have been turned into one if he touched Gabriel. That would be a little too telling. 

“How rare?” Bobby asked curiously. 

“I didn’t ask,” Sam said with a shrug.

“Kinda seems like something you should ask to me,” Dean snapped in annoyance. 

“Well sorry. Finding out I was turning into an archangel and that you and I were going to be used to start the apocalypse was a little more prominent on my mind. I’ll ask him later if you really want to know so bad,” Sam snapped back. 

“Wait a tic…apocalypse?” Bobby asked. 

“It can’t happen, now,” Sam assured him. “Apparently Dean and I are the only people on the planet from the right bloodlines and it takes both of us and since I’m turning into an archangel, I can’t be used anymore.” He followed that up with a brief explanation of what Gabriel had told him about the apocalypse, including the fact that Dean should avoid having children to prolong the end of the world. Dean just shrugged at that. It wasn’t like he was planning to anyway. 

“You said something about asking him later? You’re going to see him later?” Dean asked instead. 

“Well…yeah,” Sam said as though it should be obvious. “He’s going to have to teach me how to use my powers and help me with my wings until they’re fully formed.”

“And he’s actually willing to help? What does he want in return?” Dean asked skeptically. 

“Yes, he is, and nothing. He says it’s his responsibility, not to mention the fact that stopping the apocalypse wouldn’t matter much if I lost control of my power and leveled the world anyway.”

“Why would he care? He’s a killer anyway. Not like a few more lives should matter to him,” Dean told him, at which point Sam enlightened him on the type of people Gabriel actually killed and his brother was just as speechless as he had been. 

“Justice and Mercy,” Bobby whispered as he nodded at Sam. He got it, and wouldn’t give him any more argument. If the archangel of justice and mercy tagged someone as irredeemable, that was good enough for him.


	7. Chapter 7

The peace didn’t last long though before Dean found his voice again. “So, you’re saying it’s okay to kill people if they’re bad people? Really, Sam?” 

“Not just if they are bad people, but serial killers, peodophiles, rapists, sadists who get off on torturing people and will never stop as long as they are alive…I don’t know if I could do it myself, but I’m not gonna fault someone else for taking care of the problem. He can see their souls, Dean. He can see who’s able to be redeemed and who’s not. That’s why the kid with the aliens is still alive. It was a long shot that he could be redeemed, but there was still a slim chance so he let him go and gave him that chance,” Sam tried to get his brother to understand. He knew where Dean was coming from. They had spent their whole lives being brainwashed that if it wasn’t human it needed to die, especially if it was hurting humans, and that brainwashing had taken root deeper in Dean than it had in him. The problem was that Gabriel had to be around. He needed him, and he wasn’t about to go through all the trouble of playing peacemaker between Dean and Gabriel, not to mention the hassle that Sam would get for being nice to him. No. Better if Dean could be made to understand. 

Thankfully, Bobby came to the same conclusion. “Your brother’s right. There’s just as many human monsters out there as there are non-human ones. As long as he sticks to the irredeemable bastards, we’ll deal.”

“Bobby!” Dean said scandalized. 

“Whether you like it or not, Sam needs Gabriel, and we are going to support him, which means making nice, so suck it up and deal with it,” Bobby snapped, unwilling to let Dean’s mouth and black and white view of the world cause any more problems than it had to. Bobby himself was feeling much better about the fact that Sam was becoming an archangel rather than a trickster. Apparently, the angels weren’t as good as anyone thought, but he still thought they must have more capacity for good, and as long as Sam stayed himself, he wouldn’t go bad. It wasn’t like he was a demon or a vampire or something. Kid would be able to do a lot of good as an archangel. Dean just stormed out and Sam’s face fell. “Don’t worry, kid. He’ll come around. You know how is. He just needs to blow off some steam.”

“I hope so,” Sam said sadly. He wasn’t so sure this time. This might just be a little too much to ask him to take. 

“You just leave your brother to me. I’ll handle him,” Bobby told Sam firmly, putting a supportive hand on his shoulder. 

“Thanks, Bobby,” Sam said gratefully. 

“So you’re turning into an angel huh? How you doin’ with that?” Bobby asked concerned. He knew that as big as it seemed to him it must be even worse for Sam. 

“It’s a lot,” Sam said wearily. “Gabriel said that if he had realized what had happened he could have broke it to me in smaller pieces, but having the whole shitload dumped on me all at once…I just don’t know how I’m doing to be honest.”

“Understandable,” Bobby nodded. “At least now we know what’s going on and you have help though,” he told him. “You mentioned something about possibly losing control of your powers. We in any danger?” he asked gently. He hated bringing it up, but he needed to know. 

“Gabe’s keeping a close eye on me, and he told me how to tell if I’m starting to lose control so even if he’s not watching I know to call him,” Sam told him. 

“Good. That’s good. So he’s here watching now?” Bobby asked looking around trying to notice something off. 

He didn’t succeed though before Gabriel faded into existence standing behind the couch where Sam was sitting with a laugh. “No human could ever hope to sense me when I’m fully cloaked,” he said amusedly. 

“But Sam can?” Bobby asked curiously. 

“Not completely. Not yet. He might be able to sense something off, but he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint it yet. As he comes into his powers more it’ll get stronger,” Gabriel told him. He knew that if this hunter was going to be helping Sam through it too, then he would need to know how it worked. As much as he would risk telling a human at least. 

“So, you heard everything then,” Bobby guessed. 

“Sure did, old man,” Gabriel said with a smirk. “Sammy asked for me to stay hidden while he explained so Deano wouldn’t go running off at the mouth again and make everything so much harder.”

“I know you gotta keep an eye on Sam, but no spying on private stuff,” he said with a warning glare. 

“Don’t worry, papa bear. I have no interest in whatever kind of debauchery you get up to,” Gabriel laughed. 

About that time, Dean came back in and stopped short in the doorway, glaring at Gabriel. “Zip it, or take a walk,” Bobby said firmly, wanting to forestall the fight. 

“You really can’t undo this?” he asked Gabriel. 

“Would if I could. Really. This is pretty much the opposite of my best interests. As soon as my brothers find out what happened here, I’ll be shooting right to the top of their most wanted list and let me tell you buckos, that is not a fun place to be. It’s why I’ve been in hiding for the last hundred thousand years,” Gabriel told him. 

That sobered Dean up. “What does that mean for Sam?” he asked worriedly. 

“It means that I’m going to have to teach him to hide and to fight first thing,” Gabriel told him bluntly. 

“We already know how to fight,” Dean said rolling his eyes. 

“Not like an archangel,” was all Gabriel said on the subject. “Might be best if I ward you two as well. They might decide to use you to get to us.”

“What kind of wards?” Bobby asked suspiciously. He did trust Gabriel for the most part, but accepting anything a trickster offered at face-value was some kind of idiocy that even he wouldn’t go in for. 

“I’ll basically be etching some symbols into your ribs…with my grace. I’m not gonna have to cut you open or anything…that will keep you from being sensed by any supernatural means. They could still find you by normal human ways, but I seriously doubt any of my brothers even know how to google, much less track phones or credit cards or anything. It’s not a perfect protection, but short of sticking you into another dimension or making you invisible to everything, human and being alike, it’s the best I can do.”

Dean and Bobby both nodded and Gabriel made quick work of the warding, neither of them showing any signs of the pain beyond a sharp intake of breath. “And if they find us anyway?” Dean asked narrowing his eyes, wondering just how far the little being in front of him was willing to go. 

“Just pray. For me for now. Sam won’t be able to get prayers for a while, but when he can you can pray to either of us.”

Dean nodded. He would try to accept this. It was that or lose his brother and that wasn’t an option. “Okay, so ground rules. Car’s off limits. Period. You fix anything you break, and if you hurt any of us or any innocents I will find a way to kill an angel. Got it?” 

“Okay fine,” Gabriel said rolling his eyes. With the exception of the car it was nothing he had any issues with. He didn’t particularly like having something called off limits, but to keep the peace he would deal. “Anything you want to call off limits, old man?” he asked Bobby. He would give him one thing too. 

“My books,” Bobby said quickly. He didn’t want to know what kind of tricks a trickster could play there or what kind of trouble it could cause if he did. 

“Deal.”

“So, what can we expect with Sam,” Dean asked, aiming the question at both Sam and Gabriel, not really caring who answered. 

“More of the same, for the most part. I’ll be working with him on his powers. We figure we can do the bulk of the work at night when you humans are sleeping, that way he can go on with his life as normal during the day, unless something intrudes.”

Dean breathed easier at that. As long as this guy wasn’t trying to take his brother away, he would deal with the rest. It might be nice having an archangel at their backs. Two archangels, once Sam was done changing. It remained to be seen how much the rest of the hunter community would accept it, but that wasn’t such a big thing. They’d never had much to do with other hunters in the past and they could do without again if they had to. As long as they had Bobby on their side, they could handle it.


	8. Chapter 8

The next couple hours were spent with everyone getting more comfortable in Gabriel’s presence. There were a lot of amusing stories going around, Gabriel’s complete with whispy illusions flying through the air. They were all a little uncomfortable with the flaunting of his powers, but they knew they had to get used to it, for more than one reason. They were glad though that Gabriel left off all mentions of the deadlier pranks he’d played, and kept it to the amusing ones. When Gabriel noticed Sam starting to get uncomfortable again, he put a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s go take care of your wings.”

Sam was more than a little uncomfortable leading Gabriel to his bedroom to take care of it, especially since he would have to partially undress, but he would have been even more uncomfortable taking care of it in front of everyone else, so he dealt with it, and just tried not to show his nervousness. Gabriel noticed though, and as much as it amused him, he kept his mouth shut. At least he tried. When he noticed Sam’s hands shaking as he unbuttoned his shirt he couldn’t help it anymore and huffed a laugh. “Geez Samsquatch. Just because we’re in a bedroom doesn’t mean I’m going to molest your or something.”

Sam blushed brightly as he gave a nervous laugh of his own, but that did break the ice and Sam relaxed quite a bit as he finished removing his shirt and sat down on the bed, and managed to not even flinch when Gabriel sat down behind him. As soon as Gabriel’s slick hands started massaging his back, Sam became nearly boneless. He didn’t think he would ever get over the way it felt. “I…is it…should it…um…”

Gabriel snorted amusedly. “You’re really going to have to get over this shyness, Sammykins. There’s going to be a lot of uncomfortable conversations in the future for both of us. Best to just spit it out.”

“Is it normal to feel like this?” Sam asked, both uncomfortable and blissful at the same time.

“You’re gonna have to be more specific,” Gabriel told him resisting the urge to roll his eyes. How was he supposed to know if what the hunter was feeling was normal if he didn’t know what it was he was feeling. 

“It feels like…I don’t know if I can put it into words…like comfort, warmth, home…something like that,” Sam said blushing again. 

Gabriel gave a wistful smile. “Yeah. That’s normal. The wings are very sensitive, even new wings, and grooming each other’s wings is like a connection. It’s almost like a hug would be for humans, but on a whole different level. It’s a way to tell each other that we are cared for.”

“You miss it,” Sam said matter-of-factly, noticing the almost longing in the archangel’s voice. 

“Of course,” Gabriel said snapping himself out of it. “Who wouldn’t, but it doesn’t matter anymore,” he said with a note of finality, making it clear that he didn’t really want to talk about it. 

Sam took the hint, but turned his head to give Gabriel a sympathetic look anyway, but his eyes widened as he saw the majestic golden wings spread behind the archangel and one of his hands buried in one of them before coming out covered in oil. “Wh-what…”

Gabriel shrugged. “The reason your wings itch so much is because they aren’t formed enough to create their own oils, so I use mine until they can take over,” he explained as if it were the most natural thing in the world. In a way it really was, but that was between brothers. Between people who already had a sense of love and family. Between near strangers though…the intimacy involved was more than a little uncomfortable, but Gabriel was trying not to show that. It wasn’t so much that he minded it, as it was the fact that the walls between them were still so high, that it made it difficult to ignore. It would have been better if he had known from the beginning and they had more time to get comfortable with each other before getting here, but there was no point thinking on it. This is what they had to work with. No reason to let his own discomfort cause more of the same in Sam. He had enough to deal with. 

Sam changed the subject again back to wings, and a question that he was sure he would need answered at some point anyway. “So…how do your wings get groomed without help? I mean…is it something you can do yourself? Do they really need it or is it just done for the connection?”

“It is difficult but possible to groom them yourself. They do need it. The feathers get mussed up fairly easily, and it can get rather uncomfortable. I’ll need to do it for you until they get long enough for you to reach, but I’ll teach you how to do it when you’re able to,” Gabriel promised. 

“Or…um…you could teach me…with your wings?” Sam suggested hesitantly. Gabriel was doing so much for him, helping him through this. The least he could do is return the favor in this one small area.

“You want to groom my wings?” Gabriel asked surprised, getting what Sam was hinting at. It was a little more friendly than they currently were and would be a little weird for him, but maybe that was a good thing. Maybe the bonding experience could be good for them. Start breaking down some of those walls between them. 

“If…if you want. I mean…I’ll probably be pretty clumsy with it at first. I don’t know how comfortable it would be…but…I wouldn’t mind.”

“You’ll be fine. I’ll walk you through it when we’re done here,” Gabriel told him earnestly. It would be nice to have someone care for him again, no matter how clumsily. They lapsed into an awkward silence for the last few minutes before Gabriel reached up and squeezed Sam’s shoulder. “All done.” Sam turned around to face Gabriel and started to reach for a wing before he stopped and gave the archangel a slightly apprehensive look. “You sure you don’t mind?” Gabriel asked to be sure. 

“No, it’s fine. I just…I don’t really know where to start,” Sam said nervously. 

Gabriel gave him an encouraging smile and took Sam’s large hand in his and moved it to one of the wings. “It’s easiest to start from the ends and work your way in,” he explained as he showed Sam how to feel the natural placement of the feathers and straighten them gently without pulling on them. He showed him how to tell if the feathers were loose enough that they were ready to come out and the best way to remove them painlessly. “They do itch a bit when they are ready to come out. Nothing like what you’re dealing with, but uncomfortable enough that they are better removed once they reach that point.” Once he was sure Sam had the idea, he turned around so that Sam could get a better angle for the rest. 

Sam quickly realized that it felt pretty good from this side too. To be able to take care of someone else was just as fulfilling as being taken care of, and he was quiet for a while as he took that in with a soft smile on his face. “Am I doing okay?” he asked after a few minutes. 

“Mmhmm,” Gabriel hummed blissfully. It was a little on the clumsy side of course, but Sam was a quick study, and Gabriel found himself lost in the feelings that he’d been denied for so long. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. His own walls were falling far faster than he suspected Sam’s would, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He wasn’t about to stop this though. The damage was done either way, so he might as well enjoy it. 

Gabriel was wrong about Sam’s walls not falling as much though. The hunter was just as lost in it as Gabriel was. He was always more comfortable as the caregiver than the cared for anyway. Being taken care of made him more uncomfortable and he felt the need to distract himself with conversation. This was different though. This was him taking care of someone else, and that was like second nature to him, and he was getting just as lost in the feelings as Gabriel was. So much so that he didn’t notice himself moving closer and closer to the archangel until there was only enough space between them for Sam’s hands to work. 

Gabriel could feel Sam getting close to the end and resigned himself to the fact that it was almost over. He could only hope that Sam would want to do this again someday. When he felt the warm hand run down the center of his back signaling that he was done Gabriel shifted and turned to look at Sam and his breath hitched as their eyes met and he realized just how close Sam was. It would be nothing to close the distance and kiss him. Almost against his will, Gabriel’s eyes darted down to Sam’s lips as his tongue darted out to moisten them. 

Sam stopped breathing when Gabriel’s warm honey eyes met his own, and he got lost in their depths for a moment. He had no idea how much time had passed before Gabriel’s eyes darted down to his lips before looking back up, but that was enough to break the spell, and Sam let out his breath and moved back away from him, starting to get up from the bed.

“Sam,” Gabriel said softly as he reached out to grab his wrist before he got up completely. When Sam looked back at him, he smiled warmly and said, “Thank you,” before letting go. 

Sam returned his smile, and squeezed his hand as it pulled away. “Anytime.”


	9. Chapter 9

Gabriel followed Sam downstairs, and plopped in the free chair that Bobby wasn’t sitting in, leaving Sam to sit on the opposite end of the couch from his brother. There was plenty of room for Gabriel to join them on the couch, but he could sense that Sam needed some space right now. Truthfully, he did too. He needed to build his walls back up. Not all the way. No. That wasn’t needed anymore. Not with Sam. But that didn’t mean he could leave himself completely open to the young hunter. Not yet. It would be hard enough to coach Sam through the meditations without being strung out himself. It was good that they had this break after that intensity before the real work began. 

Dean and Bobby barely made it through one movie before they were nodding off and headed to bed. Gabriel raised an eyebrow at Sam as he stood and reached out a hand to the hunter. “You ready to get to work, kiddo?” 

“Yeah. Sure,” Sam said with a deep breath to steady his nerves before he grabbed Gabriel’s hand and they disappeared. 

Once they landed in the center of a large meadow in full spring bloom next to a babbling brook, Gabriel asked, “Okay what did you feel?” All they physical symptoms in the world couldn’t tell him how far along his mental changes were, but how well he was able to perceive flight would be a good test. To a human it would just feel almost like teleporting, but to an angel it was different. 

“It was…I don’t know. I mean, it was so fast, but it was also…like weightless? Free?” Sam struggled to find words and was coming to the conclusion that he would often be in that predicament nowadays. “Where are we?” he asked as he looked around curiously. 

“I flew you to Yosemite National Park,” Gabriel told him, both explaining what the sensation was that they were talking about and answering Sam’s question. “It’s easiest to connect with your grace when surrounded by the grace in nature. At least at first.”

“That was flying?” Sam asked shocked. “I could barely even feel it. How am I ever supposed to be able to do it?”

“Don’t worry, Sammich. Your senses will get better. It’s not just your body and soul that are changing and adjusting. Your mind is too. You’ll be able to perceive things that you still can’t quite even imagine yet. That you could feel the flight at all means that it’s coming along. Humans would just feel like they were in one place and then another with nothing in between.”

Sam couldn’t help the wince at the reminder that he wasn’t human anymore. He was still trying to come to terms with that. Gabriel saw that and gave him a sympathetic look. He could just imagine how much this whole thing had turned Sam’s life upside down. “So where do we start?” Sam said shaking off his nerves and wanting something else to focus on. 

“Have a seat and find a comfortable position,” Gabriel told him before he plopped to the ground in his usual cross-legged stance. Sam settled into a position very much like his own and he held out his hands. “Give me your hands.” Sam put his hands in Gabriel’s. “Now close your eyes,” Gabriel told him before his voice took on a soft soothing cadence. “Just take deep breaths for a few minutes. In…and out…in…and out.” He stopped talking and started breathing with Sam. He wouldn’t go as deep so he would still be aware enough to coach Sam, but it would be easier for Sam to relax if Gabriel did as well. After about ten minutes of deep breathing, Gabriel spoke softly again. “Just let everything go. Feel yourself getting lighter and free your mind.”

Sam did as Gabriel said and he could feel himself relaxing more than he ever had before. Whether it was the tranquility of this place, Gabriel’s voice, or something else, he couldn’t say, but he felt more at peace than he could ever remember already. “Now look within yourself,” he heard Gabriel say. “Find the place that burns the brightest. That’s where you’ll find your grace. It will take a while before you find it, so don’t get discouraged if you have trouble. Just let it all go and relax into it. Once you find it, don’t do anything with it. Just observe it. Feel it. Let it become a part of you.”

Gabriel kept his grip on Sam’s hands, even as he could feel the hunter going deeper. He knew better than most how easy it was to get lost inside yourself, especially the first time you touched your grace, and he knew that anchor would be needed. He could feel the resonation when Sam managed to find his grace and it seemed to radiate peace throughout the clearing. This part should probably have waited a while, but it needed to be done before it got too strong. Before it got strong enough for heaven to sense. Finding it was the first step to learning how to camouflage it and that needed to be done sooner rather than later. 

It had taken about four hours for Sam to find his grace and Gabriel gave him a couple hours to take it in before he started pulling him back. “Listen to the sound of my voice and come back, Sam,” he said softly. “Listen to the birds singing. Feel the grass you’re sitting on. Focus on the squeezing of my hands. Smell the flowers. Come back to the surface of your mind,” he coached and he kept up a litany for a good ten minutes before he heard Sam’s breathing normalize and then the hunter opened his eyes. 

“Wow…that was…wow,” Sam said in awe. 

“Yeah. It’s a pretty great feeling. Pretty soon you’ll be able to feel that on a lower setting all the time. Right now, it’s there, but it’s not completely connected to you if that makes sense.”

“I think so,” Sam said furrowing his brow as he tried to consider it before he looked around and realized that the sun had already risen. “How long was I out?” 

“A little over six hours,” Gabriel told him. “Make sure you don’t try that without me anchoring you for a while,” he warned.

“Why not? What might happen?” Sam asked curiously. 

“You might get lost inside yourself, and while I could technically go in and retrieve you, it wouldn’t be pleasant for either of us. I would essentially become a part of you for a while, meaning I would get all of your memories and thoughts and everything that makes you who you are. It’s a rather…invasive…procedure.”

“Right. Yeah. That wouldn’t be fun,” Sam said shaking his head. He would prefer to keep SOME secrets even if he would likely end up sharing most of them with Gabriel during this whole thing, just like Gabriel was sharing most of his secrets with Sam, but the idea of sharing EVERYTHING, with no filters, no holding back…it was definitely not something he wanted to do. “But that won’t always be a danger?” 

“Oh, it will always be a danger on some level. You will always have to be careful, but in time, you’ll get more used to the feelings, both of being under and of coming back and you’ll be more in control of it,” Gabriel explained. 

“So, all I need is experience and control?” Sam asked curiously. He would think there would be more to it than that. 

“No. You also need to know yourself, inside and out. We’re kinda skipping that step for now. We’ll get back to it later, but that takes time we might not be able to spare right now.”

“What do you mean?” Sam thought. He had thought that teaching him control was the most important thing, but Gabriel was implying that there was something more important. 

“You have to know your grace before you can hide it. When you go under like that it creates a beacon that can be followed. It’s not strong enough yet to leave this clearing, but it will be, and I have to teach you to hide it before it’s strong enough for other angels to detect.”

“So, when other angels look at you they see…”

“Trickster. I’ve overlaid my grace with the essence of a trickster and took on the name Loki among the pagans. Other archangels would be able to tell that I wasn’t really a trickster, though. Whether they would be able to see who I really am or not, I don’t know. It’s a fifty fifty chance really, but they never leave their gilded thrones to pay any attention to what’s going on down here and even if they did, the chances of them running across me amongst all of the beings on earth, especially when I can still sense them a mile away and make a run for it is slim. If they were to sense another archangel on earth though…all that would change and they would make a beeline straight towards you.”

“And if you’re with me…” Sam trailed off as he realized what all this really meant for Gabriel. 

“It won’t matter if I’m with you or not. The only reason they haven’t been hunting me all these years is because they think I’m dead. If they find you, they will know that I’m not. They’ll know that neither of them could have bound you and Luci is still in the cage which leaves only one archangel to choose from. If they are actively hunting me, I don’t think I could stay ahead of them. Not when they could get all the armies of heaven on the case.”

“So, both of our lives depend on me learning this, and fast,” Sam said alarmed. 

“No, Sam. Don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself. It will just make it so much harder. We still have plenty of time for this,” Gabriel told him giving a reassuring squeeze to the hands that were still in his. 

“How can I not put pressure on myself. If I screw up…”

“If you don’t trust yourself, then trust ME, Sam. We got this. You just have to relax and don’t push yourself too hard. TRUST me, okay?” 

Sam met Gabriel’s eyes and once again found himself getting lost in those depths and he found that he couldn’t NOT trust Gabriel. He found himself relaxing as his breathing evened out once more and he felt some emotion welling up inside of him that he couldn’t quite place as he leaned closer to the archangel. This time it was his eyes that darted to Gabriel’s lips before he came back to himself and leaned back again and let go of Gabriel’s hands like they were on fire. “Yeah. Okay,” he said quickly trying to distract from what had nearly happened.


	10. Chapter 10

Gabriel knew he couldn’t push Sam on this, and he wasn’t quite ready to go there yet either, but he still didn’t want to let this moment go so easily so he plastered a non-chalant look on his face and said, “Your wings are probably bothering you again.” He knew it had been long enough for them to start itching again, even if it wasn’t bad enough for Sam to show it quite yet. 

“Yeah. Kinda,” Sam said with a wince, as Gabriel’s words brought it to the front of his mind. He wasn’t sure if he was glad or not right now, he mused as he turned around and began unbuttoning his shirt. On one hand it was a way to keep that connection with something that was quickly becoming familiar, and was necessary even, absolving him of any blame. The problem was that he wanted to keep the connection at all. It was all too much, too soon, and he didn’t know how to process this on top of everything else he was dealing with right now. He had never been attracted to a man before and that was throwing him for a loop too. Part of him was also afraid of making things weird with Gabriel. They couldn’t afford that. Especially not now. Not with what was hanging over their heads if they failed. Sam needed him far too much to risk anything on a gamble like that, soulmates or not. It was this train of thought that led him to trying to distract from the moment with conversation. “Can we talk about yesterday? All that stuff with the yellow-eyed-demon?” 

“Sure Samsquatch,” Gabriel said, also relieved for the distraction. “And his name was Azazel. There are a few yellow-eyed demons.”

“Right. Okay. If I was really supposed to be the one, what was the point of the others? Were they really supposed to be generals of the army or something?” 

“There were a lot of reasons for them. Part of it was an experiment, part amusement, part to manipulate you, part just because they were bored.”

“That’s…sick,” Sam said distastefully, but not nearly as strongly as he would have if Gabriel’s hands hadn’t been working over his not quite there yet wings. 

“That’s demons for you,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “Disgusting creatures all around.”

“You really think we can get through this in one piece?”

“Absolutely,” Gabriel said with surety. “One thing you should know about me Sam is that I’m a survivor. I’m like a cockroach that way. And one reason I always survive is because I don’t allow any other option. I make plans for any eventuality and do whatever it takes to see those plans to fruition. We will run and hide as long as we can, but when the time comes to fight, I will win simply because I refuse to lose.”

“So, you think it will come to a fight,” Sam said sadly. 

“Course it will. Eventually. Every day we can put between us and a fight is a day closer to winning, and if you think for one second that I will let that fight come before we are ready, then you don’t know me very well. I will keep you safe. I will keep US safe. Trust me.”

“I do,” Sam said so softly that Gabriel almost didn’t hear it. 

Gabriel leaned close as he squeezed both of Sam’s shoulders. “Good,” he said quietly, but firmly and Sam shivered as Gabriel’s breath ghosted over his cheek. 

“You want me to…take care of your wings?” Sam asked him, realizing that he was done. 

Gabriel faltered for a second, but didn’t quite have the strength to deny him. Not really. “Well it doesn’t NEED to be done, but I wouldn’t say no if you want to.”

Sam worried his lip between his teeth for a second. Gabriel was giving him an out. Part of him said that he should take it, but another part…a larger part…didn’t want to take the out. “I could use the practice,” he finally said trying to seem nonchalant about it. He honestly didn’t know what he wanted between him and Gabriel right now, but this was something he could do without strings. Without making things weird. Without pushing things farther than he was ready for. This was a way to stay close without crossing that line. To show Gabriel how much he appreciated everything he was doing for him. To...take care of him, like he was taking care of Sam. 

Sam got lost in the feeling again as his finger slid through Gabriel’s soft, silky wings, and once again he found himself sliding closer until his chest was nearly pressed against Gabriel’s back and his cheek was leaning against the archangel’s head. Gabriel tilted his head back towards the touch and when Sam’s nose brushed Gabriel’s cheek, he came back to himself and jumped to his feet. “I…I’m sorry Gabriel…I don’t know what…I mean…”

Gabriel closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he spoke. He had hoped to put off this particular embarrassing conversation a little longer, but it seemed that wasn’t to be. He got up, putting his wings away as he did, and walked over to Sam, taking the hunter’s hands in his, but keeping his distance. “We’re soulmates, Sam. We’re always going to be drawn to each other to some degree. You’re not ready to act on it, and that’s okay. I don’t know that I am either. These things are going to keep happening, but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. When we’re ready. When it’s right…it’ll happen. There’s no reason to make a big deal out of it until then.”

“What if…what if I’m ready before you are or…or the other way around,” Sam asked worriedly. 

“Then we cross that bridge when and if we come to it. Soulmates doesn’t mean that we just snap our fingers and we’re in love or that everything is going to automatically be easy or perfect, but it does mean that it’s worth working for. I’m not going to push you away Sam. I’m not going to push you forward either. I hope you’ll do the same for me?” he asked hopefully. 

“So, you’re saying we should just let things happen?” Sam asked trying to figure out exactly what Gabriel was asking of him here. 

“No. If you want to pull away, you’re more than welcome to, as am I. I’m just saying, we don’t need to make it weird or make a big deal out of it when it happens, okay?” 

“Yeah. Okay. I…I can do that,” Sam said with a little more confidence. “But you’re saying that something will definitely happen eventually?”

“I didn’t say that. Granted I’ve never heard of a case of soulmates meeting and not being together, but that doesn’t mean it’s a requirement. We do still have our free will,” Gabriel pointed out. “But right now, I think we have more important things to be worrying about other than what might or might not happen with us in the future.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m being an idiot,” Sam said shaking his head and coming back on task. 

“No. Not an idiot. Just not as used to compartmentalizing as I am,” Gabriel said with a chuckle, snapping his fingers and replacing their shirts. “We should get back.” Staying out here alone like this much longer would do more harm than good. He reached out his hand for Sam and the hunter took it, this time trying to focus more on the feeling of flight as they flew back to Bobby’s. 

They arrived as Dean and Bobby were eating breakfast and Gabriel snapped up a seven layer chocolate cake for himself and plopped down at the table. He handed Sam a fork and slid the cake between them in invitation and Sam curled up his nose at it. “Just try it,” Gabriel rolled his eyes at the hunter. 

Sam was more than dubious given how food had been tasting lately, but gave into Gabriel’s urging and took a very small bite before his eyes went wide and he took an even bigger bite. “That’s amazing!” he mumbled around the food in his mouth. 

“Dude! I don’t need to see your half-chewed food,” Dean said, ignoring the fact that he was hardly one to talk. He definitely wasn’t used to that behavior from his brother though. 

Gabriel just smirked. “Angel tastebuds work differently than human’s,” he explained. “Most food doesn’t taste like much more than dust, but anything with large amounts of sugar goes the opposite way.”

“I thought that was a trickster thing?” Bobby asked curiously. 

Gabriel just laughed. “There are only three tricksters in the world. Myself, Anansi, and Coyote. Anansi and Coyote mostly keep to themselves and their small areas of the world. 99% of the trickster lore is about me.”

“But I’ve heard plenty of stories of hunters taking out tricksters,” Dean said confusedly. 

“Just like you took out a trickster?” Gabriel asked pointedly. 

“So, wait…all the tricksters…they’re all you? And you just trick hunters into thinking you’re dead?”

“Bingo!” Gabriel said reaching his fork for another bite of the cake only to find that it was already gone. He blinked down at the empty plate for a second and then looked up at Sam, who still had a mouthful of cake, and chocolate around his lips and the hunter just shrugged sheepishly and a gave Gabriel an apologetic look, causing the whole table to burst out laughing. Gabriel managed to snap his fingers and create another cake, this time eating rather than talking, though he was gracious enough to still share it with Sam.


	11. Chapter 11

As the foursome finished eating, Sam turned to Gabriel and asked, “So I get why we can’t do the other stuff with everyone around, but is there a reason we’re not training me to fight during the day?” 

Gabriel considered the matter for a moment before he shrugged. “I was planning to wait until you could access your grace and powers, but now that you mention it, it might beneficial to get you used to the extra speed and strength and stuff now, and then just bring the powers in later. It’s up to you. I know you don’t want this whole thing to interfere with your daily life too much.”

Sam snorted in amusement. “Gabriel, my daily life is fighting anyway. Besides, do you really think we can spare the time to coddle me with what’s going to be coming for us?” 

Gabriel knew that Sam was right. He had just been trying to make things easier for him. He was walking a line between his survival instincts and making Sam happy, so if he wanted to give up some of his time with his brother to learn to fight, Gabriel wasn’t going to complain. “Okay. If you’re sure. Now or wait until this afternoon?” 

“Umm. Maybe this afternoon. I feel a little funny,” Sam said with a hand over his stomach. 

Gabriel laughed loudly at him. “Well you did just eat an entire cake and a half in fifteen minutes. Angel’s aren’t exactly prone to the effects of overeating the way humans are, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly comfortable when we do.”

“Right. Yeah. Makes sense,” Sam said sheepishly, and Dean and Bobby started laughing at him too. “You couldn’t have warned me?” 

“You mean, something like, ‘hey Sammy. If you shovel enough cake for ten people into your mouth too fast you’ll get a stomachache’? Sorry. Thought that was just common sense,” Gabriel teased and Dean and Bobby laughed even harder. 

Sam reached over and shoved him out of his chair. “Dick.” The amusement in his tone took the sting out of the word. 

“You’re actually surprised at that?” Dean asked, still laughed. 

“Not particularly,” Sam deadpanned. 

“Sammykins! I’m hurt!” Gabriel gasped putting a hand over his heart theatrically. 

“You’ll live,” Sam said as his lips twitched trying to hold in his own laughter. 

Dean hated to admit it, but he was actually warming up to the little pixie. He’d never seen Sam so…free. If he could do that then he couldn’t be all bad. 

The moment was broken by Dean’s ringtone. He pulled the phone out of his pocket. “Hey Ash…yeah…what’s…Ash? Ash?...SHIT!” 

“Dean?” Sam asked alarmed. 

“He said he had some important info for us, but there was some kind of ruckus in the background and then the line went dead,” he said worriedly. 

Sam immediately turned to the archangel still on the floor. “Gabriel?” he asked hopefully. 

Gabriel sighed. “You steer, I’ll fly,” he said as he reached his hand for Sam. 

“You want me to…what?” 

“Just think hard about where you want to go. I don’t know where he is,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam took his hand and screwed up his eyes in consternation and then they were gone. They arrived at the roadhouse into a bloodbath. Gabriel immediately called his blade and gave it a twirl as he tossed another blade to Sam, who caught it expertly. He didn’t have time to teach Sam how to summon an archangel blade, if his grace was even formed enough to do so, but a seraphs blade would do against these demons. He gave a cold smirk as he jumped into the fray to relieve the few hunters still left standing. “Find the kid!” he called to Sam. Whatever information he found that was important enough to warrant this response was important enough that they needed to secure it. 

Sam nodded and started trying to wade through the bodies to the back where he knew that Ash’s room was. He made it through the back door and barricaded it against the two demons who were chasing him. He was worried about Gabriel, but had the same thoughts the archangel did. He forced himself to remember what Gabriel said about being a survivor and not allowing any negative thoughts and pushed forward. There were two demons already in the hallway trying to get through Ash’s door. He took the first one out silently, since they weren’t expecting any unfriendly company, and the surprise of the other one was enough for him to get the upper hand. It was still a pretty good fight, but he managed to keep him off balance enough to win before he knocked on Ash’s door. “Ash! It’s Sam Winchester. You good in there?” 

“Sam? How?!”

“Not important right now! Do you have salt lines up?”

“Don’t exactly keep salt in my room!” he said cracking the door open and Sam shoved a salt shaker in his hand. “Do it and stay in here until I come for you. Doors and windows.”

Ash nodded and closed the door again and Sam, sure that Ash was as safe as he could be, rushed back to help Gabriel only to find him in heated combat with six demons while two of them were still trying to bust through his barricade. He decided to leave them to it and jump in to help Gabriel. Even if they got through, Ash was protected now. It was now two against six, but given that then angels were immune to the demon’s powers but not the other way around, it basically evened the odds. Sam was relegated to fighting with the blade only, but Gabriel was using his blade and his hand to smite whenever he could get an opening. They were down to four, but the other two were finally making their way over when a shot rang out from the doorway. 

Sam spun to look and saw Ellen standing there with a shotgun, likely filled with salt rounds judging by the demon’s reaction. His inattention nearly allowed a machete to split his skull, but Gabriel jumped in front of him and caught the blade in his hand as his other hand stabbed the demon through the chest. It opened him up for a machete to stick in his side from another of the demon’s though that Sam quickly dispatched, having gotten his head back in the game. “Gabe…” he gasped as he struggled to keep the other two off of the archangel while Gabriel pulled the machete out of himself. 

“I’m good Sammy,” Gabriel said getting back in the fight and they quickly dispatched their last two before rushing over and helping Ellen and Jo, who weren’t doing so well. Jo was down with a huge gash to her chest that was gushing blood and Ellen was fighting like mad to protect her. “I got her,” Gabriel said, trusting that between Sam and Ellen they could keep the last two demons busy long enough for him to heal her. He didn’t think she would be able to wait much longer. 

Once he had her back on her feet they turned to the last two demons and made short work of them. They had tried to smoke out, but Gabriel stopped them. The last thing they needed was hell to find out there was an archangel walking the earth. As soon as the last demon was down, Gabriel turned to the rest of the room, going around to all the hunters to see if any of them were still alive while Sam tried to calm down Ellen and Jo and they all went to check on Ash, Sam’s super strength busting right through the barricade he had put up. “Ash! It’s Sam! It’s all clear!”

Ash opened the door and immediately splashed the hunter with holy water and Sam rolled his eyes, but had to admit that it was a smart thing to do. Once he was sure that Sam was still Sam he opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out. “We need to get out of here. When the rest of the demons realize they failed they’ll be back. Let’s go.”

The three of them followed Sam back to the front of the bar in time to see Gabriel helping up one of the hunters who was looking at him suspiciously as he walked over to another. Ellen, Jo, Ash, and the other hunter all looked on in awe as a blue glow from Gabriel’s hand washed over an unconscious body before he sat up gasping for breath. Once that was done, Gabriel turned back towards them. “That’s all I can help. The rest have already crossed over,” he told them. 

“What are you?” the first hunter he’d revived asked suspiciously. 

“I’m an angel,” Gabriel said. 

“You got a guardian angel?” Ash asked Sam excitedly. 

“Not exactly. It’s a long story,” Sam explained as Gabriel set about trying to convince the hunters that he actually was an angel and resorted to releasing enough of his grace to show the shadow of his two primary wings on the wall, and explode all the glass in the place. Gabriel wasn’t about to show his six wings and point them directly towards archangel. Let them think a seraph was running amok. Too many of them to keep track of anyway. 

“I suggest everyone clear out. This was a full attack and there will be more coming,” Gabriel told them having come to the same conclusion as Sam and as they rushed out the door, Gabriel walked back over to Sam’s group. “You’re not leaving?” he asked raising his eyebrow. 

“I was thinking we could take them back with us. Assuming you can fly so many,” Sam suggested. 

“I can fly two at a time. I’ll take the kids and then come back for you and mama bear,” Gabriel offered, and didn’t wait for a response before he grabbed Ash and Jo and disappeared, returning a moment later for Sam and Ellen. 

Once they were all at Bobby’s house, Ellen turned to Sam and Gabriel and asked, “Okay what is going on here? I saw that door you busted through, and I saw those two demons failing to get through. And an angel? Really?” 

Before anyone else could spill any secrets, Gabriel jumped in with a very barebones explanation. “Sam got hit with some kind of juju that’s turning him into an angel, so I’m here to help him through the changes, and when Dean got the call from Ash he was worried and asked if we could check it out.”

“Some kind of juju that’s turning him into an angel? Right,” Ellen scoffed. 

“That’s not the whole story, but it’s the truth and as much of the truth as I’m willing to trust strangers with,” Gabriel told her and glared at Sam, Dean, and Bobby to warn them to stick to that story. “You can call me Loki,” he added, more for the benefit of those who knew his name than those who didn’t. 

“Loki is an angel?” Jo asked skeptically. 

“It’s not my real name. My real name is a secret, but I have posed as Loki in the past, so that name will work as well as any,” Gabriel told her before turning to Sam. “Your wings still good or you need some help with them?” He had felt a few tugs on his grace during the fighting meaning that Sam’s panic allowed him to tap into some of the more minor powers and using them would cause the oil to evaporate quicker. That and the question alone made his point quite well while also signaling the end to the conversation. 

Sam rolled his shoulders experimentally. “Nah, they’re still good. Shouldn’t they be?” Sam asked curiously.

“I noticed you using a bit of power back there. That can cause issues sometimes,” Gabriel told him. 

“You have wings? Seriously?” Ash asked Sam excitedly. 

Gabriel snorted amusedly. “He has nubs right now. He’s still working on the actual wings part.”

“Can I see?” Ash asked nearly bouncing on his feet now. 

“No. You can’t. Bringing them into this plane of existence would burn your eyes out, even if Sam knew how to do that yet. That’s why I only allowed the shadow of my wings through back there,” Gabriel said rolling his eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

“Well, now that the drama is over…you said you had info, Ash?” Dean said trying to redirect his energy away from the whole angel issue.

“Oh. Right,” he said pulling up his shirt and pulling out some papers. 

Once he finished outlining everything Gabriel got up and started pacing. “A hell gate? What kind of absolute moron builds a hell gate?” It required willing human sacrifices to open the door which ruled out the demons doing it on their own. “And you’re sure the demons don’t know about it?” he asked Ash. 

“They must have some idea that I’d found one, but if they’d known the location they wouldn’t have been after us, would they?” he asked. 

“They could have been after you to shut you up and keep hunters from trying to secure it, but not likely with so large a force. They would have just slipped someone in under the radar,” Gabriel was thinking out loud. “Okay, if the location is still secret then I can seal it up without drawing too much attention,” he said as he came to a decision. “I’ll be back shortly.”

“Ga-Loki!” Sam called before he disappeared and Gabriel stopped to look at him. “Be careful.”

“Always, Samsquatch,” Gabriel said with a wink as he flew off. When Gabriel got back almost an hour later, he found himself wrapped in a hug from Sam. He couldn’t help the smile that flitted onto his face as he wrapped his arms around the hunter and buried his face in Sam’s chest. When Sam finally pulled back a minute later, Gabriel grinned at him. “What brought that on?” 

“I was just worried about you,” Sam said with a shrug. 

“I refuse to die, remember,” Gabriel told him amusedly and Sam just let out a relieve chuckle at that. “Where are our guests?” he asked curiously. 

“They bailed,” Dean told him. Wanted to hit the road and get underground before something else came looking for them. 

Gabriel shrugged. He would have helped if they had asked, but oh well. “Do I need to track them down and wipe their memories?” Gabriel asked. Since they didn’t know anything overly incriminating he would leave the judgement in the hands of those who knew them best. 

“Nah. They’re good,” Bobby said and Sam and Dean nodded in agreement, so Gabriel let it go and just snapped up some lunch for Dean and Bobby and a large sundae each for himself and Sam, topped with plenty of chocolate, caramel, and candy. 

“So, did you still want to do some fight training today or what we just did good for you,” Gabriel asked Sam amusedly.

Sam just chuckled and said, “Yeah. I still want to do some training.”

“What happened back there anyway?” Dean asked, having waited for Gabriel to get back before starting the inquisition. 

“A bloodbath is what happened,” Sam said darkly as he ate his ice cream. 

“The hunters had managed to down four before we got there. We took out another two pretty quick and I sent Sam after Ash. Two more followed him, but he blocked their way so they were distracted with trying to get by,” Gabriel started explaining. 

“I took out two in the hallway too, trying to bust into Ash’s room,” Sam added to the tally. 

“I took out another four trying to make my way to the main fight. By the time I got there the rest of the hunters were down for the count and I had eight on me. I took out another two by the time Sam got back…”

“You left Ash alone?” Bobby asked surprised. 

“I cleared out the demons back there and had the door to the bar blocked and went out the back and around to get to Gabriel. I also gave him some salt and told him to put up salt lines,” Sam said defensively. “So, I come back in and Gabriel’s fighting off six of them, so I jumped in to help, leaving the two at the door to keep trying to get through. We took out a few more by the time Ellen and Jo got back and got in the fight, cutting off the distracted two as they were headed for our backs, and held them off long enough for us to finish our own fight and come to their rescue.”

“Final tally was twenty four dead demons, thirteen dead hunters. I managed to save two of them, one just seriously injured and unconscious. The other dead but not crossed over yet,” Gabriel finished the story. 

“Son of a bitch,” Dean said quietly and that pretty much summed it up. 

Once they were done eating, Gabriel turned to Sam and said, “Let’s go take care of your wings before we start training. Easier than taking a break in an hour to do it.”

Sam nodded and led the way up to his and Dean’s bedroom before he began taking his shirt of as was routine now, and wasn’t it nuts that something that had been completely foreign to him just two days ago was now routine. Once Gabriel had Sam good and relaxed, he said, “I know that today was extenuating circumstances and everything turned out okay, so I’m not gonna harp on anything, just…do me a favor and TRY not to use your powers anymore until I clear you?”

“Yeah. Okay,” Sam agreed. He understood why it needed to be said, but Gabriel had already made it clear that he needed to be careful, and like he said. Extenuating circumstances and all. This conversation did lead him to the conclusion that he wouldn’t be able to hunt with Dean anymore. Not until he was cleared to use his powers at least. There was too much risk of running into more ‘extenuating circumstances’. 

The rest of the time with Sam’s budding wings was spent in silence as Sam tried to work up the nerve to say something he really needed to say after being so afraid of losing Gabriel today. He still hadn’t managed by the time Gabriel finished, so Sam turned and said, “Turn around,” fully intending to take care of Gabriel’s wings too. Gabriel gave him a lopsided smile and did as he was told, turning boneless as the hunter’s hands carded through his wings. It was a few minutes before Sam was relaxed enough by the action to say more. “Gabriel, I need you to know…in case something happens,” 

“Nothing’s gonna happen, Sam,” Gabriel cut him off, worried that Sam was about to go somewhere that neither of them were ready for yet because of fear. 

“Just…let me finish,” he said impatiently and Gabriel just nodded and braced himself for what was coming. “I just…need you to know…that I do care about you…and one day…one day I want to have…something…between us,” he managed to get out. 

Gabriel sighed with relief. That was something he could get on board with and not at all what he had been afraid it was. He turned and kissed Sam’s cheek quickly as he said, “Same here, Sammich.” 

Sam froze for a moment at the kiss, and Gabriel was starting to wonder if that was too much, but then Sam’s hands started moving again, and he quietly said, “Good.”


	13. Chapter 13

Once they got back downstairs they headed outside to find a large enough open area for their training. Dean and Bobby followed, wanting to watch. Gabriel set himself opposite Sam and said, “Ok, hit me as hard as you can.”

“Wait…what?” 

“I want to get an idea of how far along your capabilities are. Don’t worry Sammykins. You can’t hurt me. Not for more than a minute anyway. Just hit me.” Sam did so, but definitely not as hard as he could. He caught Gabriel with an uppercut to the jaw and the archangel flew a few feet before hitting the ground and the dust flew up around him. Gabriel hopped to his feet and rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. That was barely more than a love tap. Put some oomph into it,” Gabriel taunted as he took his place again. 

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” Sam worried. 

“Sam…TRUST me,” Gabriel said intently. Sam sighed and finally did as he was told and hit Gabriel as hard as he could. This time the archangel flew a good thirty feet and skidded to a stop against a stack of old cars so hard that the top one actually teetered and fell on him. Before Sam could get too worked up the car was back where it belonged and Gabriel jumped to his feet again. “Now that’s more like it,” he said satisfied. 

“You’re okay?” Sam asked resisting the urge to fuss over him. 

“Right as rain, Sammykins,” Gabriel told him before setting out to test his speed. He knew that Sam wouldn’t quite be as strong or as fast as him yet, but he needed to know where he was before he started teaching him. If nothing else just to make sure that he didn’t accidentally hurt Sam too badly. He had no doubt the hunter would be sore after this, but there was a difference between sore and seriously injured. Not that he wouldn’t be able to heal any damage he did, but that wasn’t the point. Once he had Sam’s capabilities tested, they started the training in earnest. 

Gabriel showed Sam some of the standard moves that the archangel’s used and then put them into practice in mock battles, at first slowly and then getting faster and faster until they were at the limit of Sam’s abilities. He used them on Sam first and then walked Sam through doing it. It would be easier if they had another guinea pig, but no one other than an angel could take those kinds of hits. First, he had Sam punch him, before grabbing his fist and spinning to the side, along his outstretched arm, pulling the arm back with him and ending with an elbow to the back of the neck. Hard enough to sting, but not hard enough to cause any real damage. “Now if this were a real fight I would have completely pulled your arm out of your socket and the elbow would have taken your head off if you were anything less than an angel, and even for an angel it would have been damaging,” Gabriel explained what the move was supposed to do, while simultaneously urging caution when practicing it himself. 

It took a few tries before Sam was able to pull it off flawlessly in slow motion before he started speeding it up, and only when it was second nature did they move on to the next one. “All of these moves I’m showing you here are designed to weaken an angel’s…or a demon’s…connection with their vessel. They aren’t designed to be kill shots. Just to make the kill shot easier,” Gabriel explained as they got ready for the next one. They managed to make it through about five of these before it was dinnertime, and Gabriel snapped up a meal for Dean and Bobby and pies for himself and Sam. At Dean’s longing look, Gabriel snapped up another pie for the hunter for dessert. 

After dinner, Gabriel and Sam went upstairs to take care of his wings again, and this time, Gabriel sat a little closer than usual to Sam. Still not close enough to crowd him, but not at arm’s length either. Sam had a question. “You said something about bringing our wings onto this plane earlier and how it would burn a human’s eyes out. What if Dean or someone walks in here while we’re doing this?” he asked worriedly. 

“My wings aren’t in the human plane right now any more than yours are,” Gabriel explained. “That’s one of the things that has changed about you. Your ability to see other planes. Eventually you’ll be able to see souls and soul-equivalent’s too. Your hearing will get sharper and more…I guess complete would be the best word. Like you won’t have to worry about loud sounds drowning out soft ones. You’ll be able to hear on all levels at once. That part is coming slowly because your brain has to be changed enough to process all the additional input.”

“I think I can already hear more. Like even while we’re talking I can hear the floorboards creaking downstairs,” Sam told him. 

“Yeah, that’s definitely part of it. At some point you’ll be able to hear the bobcat that’s out there hunting about half a mile away or the birds singing a mile away,” Gabriel told him. 

“How long are all these changes going to take?” Sam asked, realizing that he probably should have asked that sooner. 

“Probably around a year total, maybe a little more or less depending on how hard you work on mastering your powers and building up those muscles,” Gabriel told him. 

“How long until my wings are fully grown?” 

“Fully grown? About two years. Grown enough to fly solo? Maybe another six to eight months. Grown enough to create their own oils and stop itching so much? About two more months.” 

Sam nodded as he relaxed even further into the ministrations of Gabriel’s hands. Knowing that he would have this for at least another two months filled him with a warmth he couldn’t deny. He couldn’t help but wonder if Gabriel would keep grooming his wings for him after that, and he hoped that he would. Once Gabriel was finished his hands lingered a little longer over Sam’s sides before he pulled back. 

Sam motioned Gabriel to turn around so he could get Gabriel’s wings. He wanted to ask how often wings actually needed to be groomed, but he didn’t particularly want to know. He knew that if he did, it would be harder for him to do this so often without that excuse. He loved the feeling far too much to risk ruining it like that. He loved the feel of Gabriel’s silky feathers beneath his hands. He loved the way Gabriel went totally boneless and it seemed like all of his walls came crashing down. He loved the feeling of caring and comfort that he felt while doing it. By the time he finished, he had his chin resting on the archangel’s strong shoulder, and Gabriel tilted his head to the side to lean against Sam’s. Even when he was finished they stayed like that for a little while. Neither, moving or speaking. Just being. 

This time it was Gabriel that pulled away after a few minutes, putting his wings away, and getting up from the bed. He had been running from emotions…any and all emotions…as long as he’d been running from heaven. He’d already decided to stop running from his feelings here, but deciding it and being faced with the reality of it were two very different things. He would get there, eventually. He just wasn’t quite there yet. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t enjoy the brief moments of intimacy between them. He really did. It was like a balm to his soul. It just…got a little too much sometimes. 

Sam tried to tamp down his disappointment when Gabriel pulled away. He had been comfortable. In more ways than one, but he remembered what Gabriel had said that morning about giving them both the freedom to step away if it got too much, so he did understand. Sam himself had greater issue with the more overt things, like the possibility of kissing him. He wasn’t sure how much of that was due to still trying to wrap his head around the whole male issue and how much of it was just his hesitancy about having a relationship altogether. He noticed though that Gabriel tended to pull away more often with the subtler signs like this, though. He briefly considered what his reasons could be, but decided not to ask. He didn’t exactly want to go talking about his own issues so it wouldn’t be fair to ask Gabriel about his.


	14. Chapter 14

After a few hours of space, watching movies with Dean and Bobby, the two humans went to bed and Sam and Gabriel winged away to their clearing. They took a seat next to the brook again and Gabriel took Sam’s hands and coached him through reaching his grace. He found it quickly this time and Gabriel let him stay there for a couple hours before pulling him back again. It would be easier for the next part if he had some time with it first. Once he was back, Gabriel had him go under and back, only letting him linger for a few minutes each time. He needed to get him used to accessing his grace and coming back quickly before they could think about using it. After a few hours of that, Gabriel told him to go under and come back himself, without coaching. Gabriel kept a hold of his hands as an anchor though. 

When Sam went under and didn’t come back right away, Gabriel gave him a little while to see if he would manage on his own. When he still hadn’t come back after about half an hour, Gabriel squeezed his hands as a reminder, and kept up a clutch and release for about ten minutes before Sam finally opened his eyes again. “Good. Better than I expected your first time solo,” Gabriel told him with an encouraging smile. “You were gone about forty five minutes, and I only had to keep squeezing your hands to bring you back. Try it again.”

By the time the sun came up, Sam still couldn’t quite make it back on his own, but it was taking less and less time for Gabriel to coax him out. He got to where he would come out of it at the first squeeze of his hands, and Gabriel pronounced that as well enough for the night and they set to taking care of their wings. “Do you think…maybe you could tell me about heaven? I mean…I know I’ll never get to go there, but…”

“Never say never, Sammy,” Gabriel told him. “Remember, this whole thing is going to come to a fight eventually. There are plenty of potential outcomes of that fight that would open the possibility of you going to heaven. It’s just not a very nice place anymore,” Gabriel said sadly. 

“Can you tell me what it used to be like then?” Sam asked hopefully and a little hesitantly. He knew that Gabriel didn’t particularly like talking about it, but if he was an angel now…or would be soon…he felt like he should know. 

Gabriel sighed as he worked the oil into Sam’s wing joints. “It was…joy. Laughter. Warmth. Heaven’s light was something that would just wrap around you and make you feel…safe. Comforted. Like no matter what happened, everything would be okay. It was fueled by the joy of the angels and gave them more joy in return. It was a beautiful cycle. And the angels…we were always so close. Especially the archangels. We were…everything to each other. We were brothers, but that word couldn’t even begin to describe the depth of our bond. The seraphs and cherubs…they looked up to us, and we showered them with love in return, but it was nothing compared to how we were to each other. There wasn’t a spot in heaven you could go without hearing ringing laughter.”

“It sounds wonderful,” Sam said leaning back slightly into the archangel’s touch. “Do you think…do you think it could ever be that way again someday?” 

“I don’t know,” Gabriel said sadly, leaning forward against Sam’s back for comfort. “Eternity is a long time to say that something is impossible. The way things are now, I can’t see it though.” There was silence for a long while before Gabriel took a deep breath and leaned his forehead against the back of Sam’s shoulder for a moment before he pulled back. “You’re done,” he said softly, and they switched positions. 

“You said there are potential outcomes to this fight that could see us going back to heaven,” Sam said leadingly as he started to run his fingers through Gabriel’s wings. Perhaps one of those outcomes could see heaven returning to what it used to be. Maybe he could find an opening to give Gabriel hope. 

“Yeah. There are. We could manage to reach them and soften them enough for them to let us back. We could win the fight and force them to let us back. We could…could kill…one or both of them at which point we would be the only free archangels and heaven would be ours by default. I mean…I don’t want it, but you could take over.”

“Why don’t you want to?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Because it wouldn’t be the same,” Gabriel told him. “I would be alone. I mean the lower classes of angels would be there of course, but without Mikey, Raph, and Luci…it just wouldn’t be the same.” Gabriel blinked back the tears that were stinging his eyes. 

Sam shifted closer, in much the same position they had been earlier, with his chin resting on Gabriel’s shoulder. “No. I suppose it wouldn’t be the same. But you wouldn’t be alone. You would still have me,” Sam said softly, as his fingers continued moving through Gabriel’s feathers. “You remember how it used to be and between the two of us, we could make it that way again.” 

Gabriel leaned his head against Sam’s with his eyes closed, trying to keep the tears locked away, even with the warm, loving feelings churning through him due to the gentle hands in his wings. Or perhaps that was making the tears worse. “But for that to even be a possibility…It would mean having to kill my brothers. I…I don’t know if I could take anything that I had to kill my big brothers to get.”

“Then we will find a way, without killing them. Somehow…someday…we will return heaven to its former glory and we will go home. I promise you that, Gabriel. We will find a way,” Sam whispered tilting his head down to press his lips lightly against Gabriel’s shoulder, and was surprised at the lurch in his heart at that brief taste of the archangel’s skin. Gabriel turned and pressed his forehead against Sam’s temple as his breath hitched and they stayed like that for a long moment before they both pulled back at the same time, and Gabriel put his wings away and snapped his fingers, replacing both of their shirts, and wiping the traitorous tears from his eyes as he turned to look out at the sunrise. 

“Thank you, Gabriel,” Sam said in almost a whisper. 

“For what?” he asked. 

Sam just turned to look at him incredulously. For what? Really? “For talking to me about all this stuff even though it’s hard for you. For helping me through this. For teaching me. For being here. For…everything.”

Gabriel turned to look at him and gave him a lopsided uncomfortable smile as he said, “You’re welcome, Sam.”

Sam took a deep breath and glanced out the side of his eyes before reaching over and putting his hand on top of Gabriel’s, and he barely breathed, waiting to see if Gabriel would pull away or not. He felt the archangel tense up for a moment before he relaxed slightly and turned his hand over, threading their fingers together. They spent the next while watching the sunrise in mostly comfortable silence. After a few minutes, Gabriel’s thumb started rubbing circles on the back of Sam’s hand and the hunter couldn’t help the soft smile that formed as he gripped Gabriel’s hand just a bit tighter. He liked this. It was slow enough to give him time to wrap his head around things while still giving him the connection he needed. He was more sure than ever that they would definitely have something priceless one day. Perhaps they already did. 

“You mentioned something about grace in nature before?” Sam asked, wondering why he always felt so much more at peace out here than anywhere else. 

“Everything my father created contains grace. Even humans. It’s just diluted down so far, it’s all but useless in humans, but that’s why most people claim to find peace in nature. The grace in nature reacts to the grace in their souls. Back when humans lived among nature and were more in touch with it they had more power. I’m sure you’ve heard stories of old ‘wizards and witches’ that lived as hermits in the forest?” Sam nodded. “That’s how they got their powers. That constant commune with nature nourished the little bit of grace they had. Compared to anything else their power was negligible, but it was more than other humans. It’s somewhat the same for us. When we are out here it energizes our grace. Not quite as much as being in the presence of heaven’s light, but more than we could possibly get in the dead world humans inhabit these days. Thankfully there are still a few untouched places where we can find this connection, but they are dwindling by the generation.”

“What…what happens when they are all gone?” Sam asked worriedly. 

“Well unless humans develop some way of living without nature, humans will die off too and then we can rebuild. Or we can go to another world that hasn’t been destroyed yet.”

“There are other worlds?” Sam asked curiously, perking up at the thought. 

“Oh sure. Lots of them,” Gabriel told him. “I seeded quite a few with life myself.”

“That’s amazing,” Sam said in awe.

Gabriel chuckled a little. “Oh, Sammy. We archangels helped form the entire cosmos. Every star, every planet, every moon, all of it. You’ve only seen my powers of creation on the smallest possible scale. There is so much we have to explore in time.”


	15. Chapter 15

After a couple more hours where Gabriel regaled Sam with stories of creating the cosmos, they headed back to Bobby’s. They spent a majority of the time between breakfast and dinner on fight training, but Sam liked being close in case they were needed like they had been when Dean got the call about the roadhouse. He knew that they could be reached by prayer at any time, but he just wasn’t ready to cut the cord with his brother just yet. He knew he would need to eventually. If for no other reason than that he would live forever and Dean wouldn’t, but for now he wanted to stay close. 

That night when they returned to the clearing, Gabriel had Sam continue working on pulling himself out of his core, and it only took a few more hours before he was able to sink in and come right back out with no assistance at all from Gabriel. “Excellent Sammykins!” Gabriel said with a grin after the third time he did it flawlessly. “Next step. Find your grace, but instead of just observing, kinda burrow down into it, until it surrounds your whole being.”

Sam furrowed his brow for a moment while his mind worked on translating the physical description to the metaphysical actions. Gabriel stayed silent while he processed, knowing that Sam would ask for a better explanation if he got stuck. He could see the lightbulb go on in the hunter’s head as Sam nodded and closed his eyes, and Gabriel settled in to wait. 

It was nearly an hour before Gabriel saw Sam starting to glow and felt the wind pick up around them and he smiled proudly. He gave Sam a few minutes to bask in it before he squeezed his hands as a signal to come back and then he waited. He knew it would take a little longer this time, and sure enough it was about fifteen minutes before Sam opened his eyes. “That was…amazing!” he exclaimed. 

“Yes. It is that,” Gabriel said smiling wide. “And now the real work begins,” he added. 

“Ok. So, what’s next?” Sam asked determinedly. 

“Normally, next would be teaching you to use your grace in the outside world, but more important for us, is learning to camouflage your grace. Pagan essence is the easiest to camouflage it with since they are both aspects of nature.” A

“So, I do have to become a trickster like you then?” Sam asked, not really sure how he felt about that. 

“Not at all. Just a pagan. You can decide what aspects and traits you show. It’s not going to change your personality at all. You would just pick a name that matches your personality. I would suggest old norse since it will explain why we’re hanging together.”

“I don’t know old norse,” Sam pointed out. 

“I could make some suggestions if you like?” Gabriel offered and Sam nodded. “Alvar means warrior elf, Amund means warrior of protection, Bard means battle for peace…”

“How about not something dealing with fighting?” Sam suggested. 

“Okay. Sure. I just figured since you were a hunter that was what you were thinking,” Loki said questioningly. 

“Well…yeah…I’m a hunter now…or was before all this anyway, but growing up I hated hunting. I ran away a bunch of times until I turned 18 and ran off to college and it finally stuck. I was studying law and actually happy for the first time in my life until the demons killed my girlfriend and I went back on the road with Dean hunting revenge. Now that Azazel is dead…I’ve been thinking of getting out of the game for the most part. I was never really as into it as Dean was. I’m more into the books aspect if anything,” Sam explained to give Loki a better idea of who he was and what he wanted in a name. 

“Fair enough. Let me see…” he tapped his chin as he thought. “Frodi means wise, Ragnvaldr means powerful counsel, Runi means secret lore, Sigmundr means victorious protector, or we can create your own name. Something like Frodmundr which would mean wise protector or Frodiragn for wise council or Runifrod for secret wisdom. That give you any ideas or should we keep thinking?” 

“Can I just think about it and decide later?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“Names carry power among pagans. If you really can’t decide now, we can wait, but we can’t go any further without a name to attach to the pagan side of you that you’ll be creating,” Gabriel told him. When Sam looked undecided, he added, “It’s not like you’ll be using the name on an everyday basis. It’ll just be in case you need an alias, like if you run across a seraph somewhere who asks you your name you would give him the pagan name to match what he would see.”

“Yeah, okay. That makes sense I guess. Okay I think I would go with the wise protector one…what was it again?” 

“Frodmundr,” Gabriel told him. 

“Okay, yeah. Frodmundr,” Sam struggled a bit over the foreign tongue. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll teach you old norse in our down time. You might need to know it for the ruse at some point,” Gabriel told him. 

“What about the angel’s language...isn’t there one?” Sam asked curiously. He would rather learn that first if he had a choice. 

“There is. Enochian. Now that you’ve connected to your grace you can speak and understand it instinctively though,” Gabriel told him and waited for Sam to nod his acceptance and signal that there were no more questions on that front. “Okay, so overlaying the pagan essence over your grace. That’s something that is very time consuming and difficult, not to mention a little bit dangerous, but I’ll be doing everything I can to lessen the danger. 

“What kind of danger? Lessen it how?” Sam asked. 

“It requires spending a lot of time immersed in your grace. Far more than is recommended and the chances of losing yourself in it are greatly increased. That’s why we practiced coming out of it so much. I’ll be here to talk you back if needed, and I can even toss you in the freezing brook if necessary,” Gabriel said with a mischievous smirk on his face that told Sam that he was kinda hoping it would be necessary and Sam chuckled. “One thing you need to be aware of, is that this is something that’s going to take time. It’s not something that will be done in one night or even two. It will be more like a week or two depending on how difficult you find the process.”

“How long did it take you?” Sam asked curiously, looking for a bar to measure himself against. 

Gabriel just laughed, knowing exactly why Sam was asking. “Don’t try to compare yourself to me on this one kiddo. When I did it, I was already intimately familiar with my grace and had a lot more power at my disposal. It only took me about thirty hours of straight work.”

Sam just huffed a bit, but got straight into it. “Okay, so how do I do it?” 

“Do like you did before and go inside your grace but instead of keeping your mind clear you need to keep a conceptual image in your head. You need to ‘feel’ the grass and dirt and wind and trees. You need to ‘feel’ the blazing heat of fire, and the rushing water. You also need to keep your new name at the forefront of your mind through it all. You’ll need to sort of ‘pull’ those things away from you and picture the strands weaving into your grace, and you’ll just keep at it until it won’t take anymore.”

“So, I’ll be changing my grace?” Sam said uncomfortably. He knew it was necessary, but it just seemed so…wrong. 

“Only on the surface. At the core it is what it will always be. These strands just make it look different to any observers,” Gabriel reassured him, knowing what he was thinking. If it actually polluted the grace he never would have done it himself, even if it meant death at his brother’s hands. 

“Okay. That’s okay then,” Sam said as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, sinking into himself. By the time Gabriel pulled him out of it as the sun was starting to rise, the archangel could see a difference. It wasn’t really noticeable yet if he hadn’t been looking for it, but it was there. It meant that Sam had figured out how to do it, and he would get better at it as time went on. Once Sam opened his eyes, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Can you tell if I’m doing it right?” 

“You’re doing just fine, Sam-a-lam,” Gabriel told him proudly. “Now let’s see those wings of yours.”

Once Gabriel’s fingers were working over the joints, Sam asked, “Do we need, like, a cover story or anything for the pagan stuff?” 

“Nah. Not unless you want one anyway. The pagans aren’t a particularly friendly bunch so wouldn’t think twice about us telling them it’s none of their business, and no angel would ever bother to ask a pagan for their backstory,” Gabriel assured him. 

“Ok. That makes sense,” Sam said quietly. 

“Something’s bothering you,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“It’s just…it was one thing turning into an angel. Angels aren’t particularly monstrous. But now becoming a pagan…that’s just…I don’t know. I mean, I’ve spent my whole life being taught to hate the thing I’m becoming.”

“You’re not becoming a pagan, Sam,” Gabriel said gently. “You’re just…wearing a costume so to speak. You are and will always be an angel, no matter how much you may look like a pagan to others. And as far as being monsters, pagans really aren’t. Not in general. Some of them are, sure, but not all of them. They’re people just like anyone else. They’re just powerful people. Even if you WERE becoming a pagan, you choose what to do with it. It’s not like vampires who HAVE to drink people’s blood to survive or werewolves who HAVE to eat human hearts. It’s always a choice.”

Sam visibly relaxed at that. “Thanks, Gabe,” he said relieved. Somehow Gabriel always knew what to say to make him feel better. Gabriel brought his wing around and brushed down Sam’s arm in acknowledgement of the thanks without pausing in his massage. When Sam brought a hand up to card through that wing, Gabriel shuddered a bit and wrapped all of his wings around the hunter, and Sam grinned as he started to groom Gabriel at the same time. It was giving him a double dose of the powerful feelings. Both being cared for and caring for someone else and it was blissful. He could feel Gabriel shift closer behind him, so that Sam could reach more of his wings, and Sam could feel the heat radiating from the archangel’s bare chest. 

Gabriel too was getting a double dose, and he reveled in the feeling, knowing that once Sam’s wings were more fully formed they would get in the way of doing this. He moved to his knees to get his legs out of the way so he could get closer to Sam, barely having room to fit his hands between them to keep working on Sam. His breathing was coming faster as he could feel Sam’s heat against his chest and he turned his head, nuzzling against the hunter’s hair, and when Sam tilted his head back for more, his cheek and neck. 

They stayed like that for a long moment as Gabriel finished up with Sam’s wings and brought his hands to Sam’s sides, pressing his chest fully against the hunter’s back as his eyes fluttered closed. After a few minutes, Sam turned, rising to his knees himself so that they were chest to chest and he reached around Gabriel to get the feathers at the back. Sam’s breathing was just as fast and halting as Gabriel’s was as their cheeks were pressed together and they could feel each other’s breath ghosting over their necks and ears, turning to nestle into each other every so often as their lips got closer and closer. 

Time seemed to stand still as their noses brushed together and they could feel their shallow breath’s mingling in the tiny amount of space between their lips until Sam moved forward just a fraction, sliding his lips over Gabriel’s so lightly they were barely there. Gabriel’s breath hitched and he increased the pressure just a bit as his hands moved around to splay over the small of the hunter’s back and their lips began to move together, softly and slowly, even as Sam’s hands were still straightening the feather’s in Gabriel’s wings. Neither deepened the kiss, but it lasted for quite a while. Even after Sam finished with Gabriel’s wings and moved his hands to the archangel’s sides, until finally, as if by silent agreement they both pulled back slightly and looked into each other’s eyes for a moment before turning to face the sunrise, hands clasped together.


	16. Chapter 16

As they watched the sunrise, Sam was deep in thought. That was…intense. But in a good way. Mostly. He didn’t think he was ready for all that a relationship entailed, but he didn’t think he would mind doing that again if the moment overcame them that way. 

“You’re projecting, Sammykins,” Gabriel told him. 

“Huh?” Sam asked confused. “Projecting what?” 

“Your thoughts.” Sam turned bright red. “Now that you’re fully connected to your grace, you need to be a little more careful with that. I agree with you, in case you were wondering, but you should still probably stop thinking so loud,” he said with a smirk, knowing that Sam was beyond embarrassed. Truth was, he was too, but the amusement was overshadowing it a bit. Not that he would ever deign to show embarrassment anyway. 

“How…how do I not ‘think so loud’?” Sam asked, really hoping there was an easy fix or this could get even more embarrassing than it already was. 

“Just…imagine a shield around your mind, I guess would be the best way to explain it,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam furrowed his brow in concentration for a moment before he thought, ‘Can you still hear me?’

Gabriel chuckled. “We have telepathic abilities. If you intentionally direct a thought towards me I’ll hear it no matter how well you’re shielding. Try thinking something like, ‘the sunrise is pretty’ or ‘the grass itches’ or something. 

Sam nodded and did so, and when Gabriel didn’t respond he figured he was doing it right, but he still had to ask. “Did you hear anything?” 

“Nope. Quiet as a whistle,” Gabriel told him. 

“Okay. Good. So…we’re good, right?” Sam asked nervously. 

Gabriel huffed a laugh. “Yeah. We’re good, Samsquatch,” he said as he gave a reassuring squeeze to the hand in his, not looking away from the sunrise. 

“Good,” Sam said relieved. He hadn’t missed the vulnerability in Gabriel’s eyes as they pulled apart before and he had been worried that it was too much and Gabriel might start pulling away. Maybe it had even been a good thing that Gabriel heard his thoughts on the matter, despite how mortifying it was. It wasn’t like he ever would have been able to get up the nerve to actually talk about it, and now they knew where each other stood, at least. 

Gabriel too was lost in thought. He could feel himself falling and that scared the hell out of him, but it was also exhilarating. It was a powerful feeling, and after shutting everything off for so long, a little overwhelming too. He was still determined not to run from this. It was taking a little more effort than he had anticipated though. He could still taste Sam’s lips on his and part of him desperately wanted more. The part that wanted to run was pulling him in the opposite direction though and he knew that he had to reconcile that within himself before he could let anything real happen with Sam. It wouldn’t be fair to the hunter otherwise. He was sure that some part of him would always want to run, but right now it was still too strong. He was fighting it even now. 

After a long silence, Sam pulled himself out of his thoughts to ask, “What else will be different now that I’m ‘hooked up’?” 

“Really, it can go either of two ways. See when angels start growing into their grace they are children and children’s minds are unstructured and things tend to go a little haywire until they learn to control it. You’re an adult though, so your mind is more disciplined, and I’m not sure if that will make a difference or not. For all I know it could go the other way and we’ll have trouble coaxing your powers out. We’re in a bit of uncharted territory on this one,” Gabriel said with a shrug.

“So, this has never happened before then?” Sam asked curiously. He had figured it would be pretty rare, but he thought that it had happened somewhere, somehow, before. 

“It’s possible that it did and was just hidden like we’re hiding you, but not very likely. I don’t know of it ever happening before, and angels have been forbidden to interact with humans since Lucifer fell.”

“But you have been for all these years,” Sam said, realizing just how much trouble Gabriel would be in irrespective of the fact that Sam was supposed to have had a role to play. 

“I’ve ever cared much for rules,” Gabriel said with a chuckle, brushing off the concern. 

Sam just shook his head ruefully turned to look back at the babbling brook. After a few minutes he had the urge to take off his socks and shoes and dangle his feet in the water. No sooner than the thought crossed his mind, his socks and shoes disappeared and he blinked at his feet for a moment before shrugging, not noticing the way Gabriel’s lips were twitching in amusement. He definitely notice the gut busting laugh when Sam put his feet in just to pull them back with a yelp. “That’s cold!” he exclaimed before leveling a half-hearted glare at the archangel rolling on the ground laughing. “Oh you think that’s funny do you?” he said and he barely had to think the idea before Gabriel was rolling into the water. 

That didn’t stop Gabriel’s laughter though. “Oh, it’s on now,” he said with a smirk as he twitched a finger and a water spout flew right up in Sam’s face, leaving a sputtering hunter in its wake. Seeing as Gabriel had gotten to his feet in the water that was only about halfway to his knees, Sam had another thought that had Gabriel slipping backwards and landing on his back in the water before he was suddenly in the same position with another yelp at the temperature. After a bit more back and forth they both pulled themselves out and were both dry and warm with just a thought. 

“Shouldn’t we be like…immune to cold or something?” Sam asked. 

“We are for the most part. We can’t get frostbite or hypothermia, and we can even ignore the discomfort with a little practice, but it’s still a shock to the system if you’re not expecting it,” Gabriel said, lips still twitching with repressed amusement. 

“A little warning would have been nice,” Sam grumbled good-naturedly. 

“Now where’s the fun in that?” Gabriel asked cheerfully. 

“Dick,” Sam teased. 

“Doofus,” Gabriel teased right back. 

“So how do I stop doing stuff without meaning to?” Sam asked.

“It’s similar to the shield you put up in your mind but much more complicated and difficult,” Gabriel told him. “For one thing, instead of trying to hold back one specific thing, it needs to block everything. For another thing, there has to be some sort of exclusion. It’s easiest to have some sort of gesture that your mind can lock onto as a trigger to release whatever you need to. Over time you can relax it some as you get more practice, but by then it’ll likely be habit for the most part. I use a fingersnap, but you can also clap your hands, stomp your feet, wiggle your nose, whatever.”

Sam chuckled a bit when Gabriel mentioned wiggling his nose before he said, “Well I can’t wiggle my nose, if I use clapping then anytime I see a show would turn into a circus, and I tend to stomp when I’m mad and that’s probably the worst time to be doing whatever I’m thinking, so I think the fingersnap would be best. Assuming you don’t mind me stealing your trademark,” he joked. 

“I suppose I can be nice enough to share. As amusing as it may be to get you clapping and then take you to a show, modifying that many memories at once can be exhausting,” Gabriel drawled. 

Sam laughed loudly at that before getting back to business. “So, I just picture it like a shield then?” 

“I would say more a block than a shield. It’s a subtle difference. But be careful. If you try to bind your power too tightly it will rebell. And you’ll need to be prepared to loosen it as your power grows. Once you get it set right you’ll probably need to keep checking on a daily basis to make any modifications.”

Sam nodded and closed his eyes as he tried to picture what he was trying to do. He thought it was going well until he heard a tense, “Stop, Sam. Let it go!” Sam snapped his eyes open and did as he was told before looking curiously at Gabriel. “Did you feel that tightening?” 

“Yeah. I thought that just meant it was working?” 

“No. That meant it was about to explode,” Gabriel pointed out with a smirk. 

“Oh,” Sam said sheepishly. “So how do I know if it’s working?” 

“You don’t. That’s what makes it so difficult,” Gabriel told him. “You just have to experiment.” Sam curled his lip in in aversion to that idea. “Yeah. It’s annoying. But at least you have time to figure it out before it grows so much that you’re blowing up planets and stuff,” Gabriel said cheerfully, trying to point out the bright side.


	17. Chapter 17

Dean had been feeling rather disconnected from his brother lately, so had an idea to help. Once they were sitting down to eat the breakfast that Gabriel had snapped up, he suggested, “So, Sammy. I was thinking you and me could go out tonight. Hit a bar. Have some fun. What do you think?”

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” Sam muttered around his mouthful of cake and just as Dean was opening his mouth to ask why not, the full gallon of milk hit him in the back of the head and splashed all over him and Sam winced. 

Gabriel just burst out laughing though and Dean rounded on him. “What the hell, Gabriel!?”

Gabriel held up his hands in an attempt to look innocent as he managed to croak out around his laughter. “Was-wasn’t me.”

Sam just blushed a little as he said, “Sorry. I was just thinking about a glass of milk with my cake.”

“You…but…okay so why dump it on me?” Dean sputtered a moment as he tried to wipe the milk out of his eyes and Gabriel just laughed harder, and even Bobby was chuckling lightly at that. 

“It wasn’t intentional. You were just in the way,” Sam said with a sheepish shrug. 

“Okay. Note to self. Don’t sit between Sammy and the fridge,” Dean grumbled. “I’m gonna go take a shower.” 

With that pronouncement, Gabriel managed to snap his fingers and clean Dean up before Sam attempted to and risked making things worse. “Yeah, Sammykins should probably avoid going out in public until he has a little better control,” Gabriel said, mostly calmed down now. Unfortunately, his calming was offset by Sam’s getting worked up. Gabriel reached over and put a hand on Sam’s. “Hey. Sammy. Deep breaths. In and out. There’s nothing to worry about. Anything you do, I can undo. Anything you break, I can fix. Even if you hurt someone I can just heal them. It’s not a big deal. This is why I’m here. You’re just gonna make things worse if you freak out on me. Just breathe.”

Dean and Bobby raised an eyebrow at each other, getting a taste of what exactly it meant for Gabriel to be helping him with this situation. Sam finally let out a deep breath and said. “Yeah. Okay. I’m good. I just…”

“No need to worry. It happens. I know this is a lot on your shoulders and pretty sudden at that. We’ll get there,” Gabriel assured him. “Now remember that block we were working on before we came back and try to adjust it a bit…not that much!” he said as he saw the tightening, but it seemed that Sam noticed about the same time he said something because he was already pulling back before Gabriel finished. When he opened his eyes, they settled on Gabriel with a grateful look and the archangel just gave him a lopsided smile. “There you go. Let’s see how that goes. Now concentrate and try and snap up a glass of chocolate milk. Emphasis on GLASS,” he added knowing that part tended to get lost in translation. Normally he would let him make the mistake for a good laugh and a learning experience, but he figured there’d been enough flying milk in this kitchen today. 

Sam closed his eyes and concentrated before snapping his fingers and as requested, a glass of chocolate milk appeared on the table. The fact that it was two feet tall and probably held about two gallons wasn’t remarked on aside from a little snicker from Dean. Gabriel just snapped up two swirly straws into the drink for he and Sam to share. 

After a moment to be sure he could get the words out without laughing, Dean said, “Hey Sammy. You want to snap me up a pie?” 

That was the end of Gabriel’s patience as he barked out a laugh and even Sam managed to laugh at that one as he got a mischievous smirk on his face and said, “Sure Dean,” before snapping his fingers and causing a pie to smash his brother in the face. Unfortunately, the pie was still rather large and Bobby got caught with the splatter too, but the old hunter just brushed it off with a chuckle. 

“Okay. No more snapping at the breakfast table,” he said indulgently.

“Whatever you say old man,” Gabriel said smugly. 

“Who you calling old? You’re a lot older than I am,” Bobby countered. 

“Only technically,” Gabriel said with a smirk. “You’re human. By human standards, you’re old. I’m an archangel. I’m in the prime of my life.”

Bobby just blinked at him for a moment, but try as he might, he couldn’t quite argue with that reasoning. “Balls,” he said dejectedly knowing that he lost that argument. “You wanna clean up this mess?” he changed the subject. 

“Well, I would. Really. But you DID say no more snapping at the breakfast table,” Gabriel said innocently. 

Sam started snickering into his hand, and Dean let out a loud guffaw before saying, “He’s got you there, Bobby.”

Bobby grumbled unintelligibly for a moment before he said. “Fine. One more snap to clean up the mess.”

Gabriel’s smirk got wider as he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Bobby took a look around and nodded in satisfaction before his eyes got wide and his hands went to his head to feel nothing but scalp. “What? You didn’t think I was limited to one action per snap did you?” 

Bobby just gaped like a fish for a moment, as Sam and Dean tried to control themselves. “I…you…” He stopped and took a deep breath before he said. “You know what. It’s not worth it. I can live with it.”

Gabriel’s smirk turned to a pout. “You were a lot funner when you were trying to kill me. What happened to the witty repartee? The amusing struggles? The constant screams of frustration?”

Bobby just shrugged. “There comes a time in any man’s life when you just have to accept what life hands you and make the best of it,” he deadpanned and Sam and Dean were both laughing hysterically by now, tears running down their faces. 

“Fine. Spoil all my fun,” Gabriel said despondently as he snapped his fingers again and Bobby’s hair was back.

Bobby suppressed his smirk. He had this game figured out. He’d suspected that Gabriel would lose interest when it didn’t get a rise out of him. It had the added bonus of amusing the boys. He hadn’t seen them laugh like this in far too long. For that alone, he would put up with the archangel’s antics.

When breakfast finally finished, Gabriel said, “We’re not gonna do any fight training today.”

“Why not?” Sam asked curiously. 

“I’d like you to get your powers a little more under control before we start fighting and I end up blasted into outer space,” Gabriel joked. 

Sam chuckled. “Yeah. That makes sense.” 

“Movie Marathon!” Dean called out. 

“Hey, can we watch the avengers movies? I’ve been meaning to check them out and see what I’m like in them,” Gabriel suggested. 

“I don’t think we have those,” Dean said apologetically. He wouldn’t mind watching them either. 

“That’s not a problem,” Gabriel said as he snapped his fingers and the whole series appeared on the table, including the Thor series as well.

“Works for me,” Dean said with a shrug, as he grabbed the first movie to pop in. “I say we let Sam do the popcorn,” he teased and Sam laughed and snapped his fingers and a bowl of popcorn appeared that almost completely hid Dean from view when it was sitting on his lap. He snapped again and there was a bowl of caramel popcorn for himself and Gabriel and a large pack of twizzlers. 

The next few hours were spent with Gabriel heckling at the screen and throwing his popcorn at it, while laughing at the ridiculous portrayal of his Loki persona, and everyone else laughing at his reactions. “You sure you want to watch the rest? Dean asked amusedly after the first movie. 

“Of course, I do. I need to see what you ignorant humans really think of me after all,” he said sticking his nose in the air, so Dean shook his head with a chuckle as he popped in the second one and the scene repeated itself. Sam was sitting on the couch between Dean and Gabriel and often got caught in the middle during random tussles, but he found it more amusing than annoying. All in all it was a good morning, and after all the popcorn and candy, none of them were in much mood for lunch, so the third movie went in right on the heels of the first two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was all taking place in 2007 and those movies weren't out yet. Let's call it artistic license. In my world they are out already lol.


	18. Chapter 18

After the third movie, they had to take a break to do Sam’s wings so they headed upstairs and stripped out of their shirts with practiced ease. Sam was both looking forward to and dreading this. It was so amazing and intense and he couldn’t get enough, and that was the problem. Gabriel was in the same boat. His urges to run were more heightened than ever, but he stayed the course as he settled behind Sam, far closer than he usually started, and moved his hands to Sam’s back, pulling his own wings around far enough to be in invitation, but not to such a degree as to make Sam feel obligated. 

Sam didn’t need to feel obligated though. He wanted to. He was sure that if he still slept he would dream of these wings…and the archangel attached to them. When he reached out and started carding his fingers through the soft feathers, Gabriel moved them all the way around and shifted even closer. So close that his breath was ghosting over Sam’s ear even before he tilted his head forward and pressed his lips lightly to the hunter’s shoulder a few minutes later. 

Sam’s breath hitched and he laid his head back blissfully and it came to rest on Gabriel’s shoulder behind him. Gabriel’s breathing was already ragged as he turned his head and pressed a short soft kiss against Sam’s neck, causing the hunter’s breathing to stutter as it too sped up exponentially. Gabriel trailed a line of tender kisses up Sam’s long neck and over the back of his jaw as he closed his eyes against the rush of feelings washing over him. 

Gabriel wasn’t even half done, when Sam turned around anyway, and Gabriel just reached around to continue working anyway as their lips slowly and hesitantly found each other’s again. Sam’s arms were outstretched, still sliding through Gabriel’s feathers, while they knelt there, chest to chest, lips moving together slowly. After a few minutes, Sam’s lips left Gabriel’s and started trailing a line down his jaw and to the archangel’s neck, where he mostly just nestled his face in pressing soft kisses to the golden skin. 

Gabriel just tilted his head against Sam’s turning to press his lips to the hunter’s temple and hair. As Gabriel finished with Sam’s wings, he just wrapped his arms around him and held Sam tightly against him, unable and unwilling to let go. Even a little. “Sam…” he whispered with longing and Sam picked his head up and met Gabriel’s lips again as his hands moved to the feathers at Gabriel’s back. This time, Gabriel moved to deepen the kiss and Sam opened for him as their tongues joined the dance. When Gabriel felt Sam finish with his wings, he put them away so that Sam wouldn’t be obstructed by them while holding Gabriel close. 

The kiss didn’t last much longer after that though. Without the increase of emotion from the wings, their own insecurities began to come back to the forefront and it was only a few moments before they pulled back away, getting lost in each other’s eyes before meeting for one more short chaste kiss, and then Gabriel was pulling away and getting off the bed, trying to get his feelings back under control before he did something he would regret. Whether that was taking things farther or running away, he couldn’t say, but he had been on the verge of one of those two extremes. 

Sam sat back on his heels as he worked to steady his own breathing and calm down. Once he felt like he could speak again, he moved all the way back up to the head of the bed, giving Gabriel room to sit without getting too close if he didn’t want to as he asked, “Can we talk?”

Gabriel took a few more steadying breaths before he turned back to Sam and plopped down on the bed, mask firmly in place once more. “Bout what?” he asked easily. 

“I just…I think it would be good for us to talk about this. To…to understand each other and where we’re coming from.”

Gabriel’s hands were shaking at the idea, but he had to admit that Sam had a point. It might help. He didn’t think it could hurt at least, but it wouldn’t be easy for him to talk about. Of course, it likely wouldn’t be easy for Sam either. “Yeah. Okay,” Gabriel said nervously. “You first.” It was only fair since it was Sam’s idea after all. 

“Okay. Right. I just…there’s so much coming at me all at once that I’m trying to wrap my head around and this thing with us is just one more thing rattling around in there and it’s just…hard to really figure out what I want or where I want to go with this. It’s just confusing because I’ve never really…been attracted to a man before, and it’s just…a lot, you know?” 

Gabriel knew that the point of this was to talk it out so he tried to. “Yeah. I get that. You’ve got a lot coming at you right now, and you’re handling it great, by the way. Much better than I expected. Much better than I could even. It seems to me, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it doesn’t seem like the WANT is the issue. You’re having trouble wrapping your head around the idea that I’m a man, right?” Sam nodded, so Gabriel continued. “Well that’s an easy fix. I’m not male nor female. Nor are you anymore. We are celestial beings. We have no gender. This body is male yes, but ‘I’ am not. Just let your mind focus on that fact and let the rest work itself out.”

Sam considered that for a moment. Gabriel was right that the ‘want’ wasn’t the issue. He wanted Gabriel. Badly. It was just the body that was standing in the way right now. Maybe thinking of things that way would help him work around it. “Okay. Yeah. I can give that a shot. There’s also the fact that I’m just…worried about making this whole thing even harder on us by making things weird between us.”

“You mean weirder than they already are, being in a situation that forces us to bare our souls to a relative stranger? Weirder than it is trying to hold back what we really want because we have issues with it? It’s already weird, but we’re handling it. If anything, not holding back anymore would make it LESS weird.”

“That makes sense,” Sam said looking down. He hadn’t thought of it like that. “Also, can we really afford to take time away from the pressing issues at hand to deal with US? I mean, learning to use my powers, learning to hide my powers, learning to fight. All of that is too important to let ourselves be distracted.”

Gabriel shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong. The only thing that we are doing that is crucial right now is hiding your powers and you can only work on that so long at a time. It doesn’t have to be all work and no play. In fact, it SHOULDN’T be all work and no play or you’ll burn out and have a major setback. I’ve been mostly indulging you so far because it’s so new, but as far as learning to use your powers, that’s an ongoing thing. Just like it’s been today. Doing everyday things and learning to work them in on the small stuff. Fighting…I hate to break it to you kiddo, but we’re talking decades, maybe even centuries before you’ll be able to match an archangel in head on combat, and you are already nearly a match for a seraph. Once we get your powers worked in, you’ll be set there. With the exception of hiding your grace, this is a long haul. Not something to spend every moment of every day on.”

Sam nodded as he turned that over in his head. Gabriel was right about that one too. It seemed the only issue he really had to get over was the whole gender question. He looked back up at Gabriel and said, “Okay. Your turn.”

Gabriel took a deep shaky breath and ran his hand through his hair. This was the part he was dreading, but he knew it was only fair that he unload too. “When I left heaven, I left behind GABRIEL. Gabriel was the weak-willed archangel who felt too much and too deeply and found himself nearly destroyed by it. I…I haven’t really let myself feel anything since. Anything substantial, I mean. Anything stronger than a passing comfort. Whenever I started to feel myself starting to care too much about anyone or anything, I cut and run. As far and as fast as I could, because I couldn’t let myself go there again. I…I decided…when all this happened, that I wasn’t going to run anymore, but deciding it and facing the reality of it are two very different things. E-every time we get closer. Every time things get emotional, I’m fighting with everything I have not to run again, and…and that’s not fair to you. I need to…be better than that before…” he trailed off, not quite able to say the words ‘I let myself love you’ but he was sure Sam would get the gist, if not the depth. 

Sam smiled warmly at him and held out a hand in invitation and Gabriel took it hesitantly. “I get that Gabriel. I really do. It is scary. It’s supposed to be. Anyone…in this situation,” he just couldn’t manage to say ‘falling in love’ despite how well it fit, “would be scared. I know I am. That’s how you know you’re doing it right,” he added lightly. “You don’t have to stop being afraid completely for this to happen, Gabriel. You always will be to some degree. If you’re still TOO scared, that’s okay. Just don’t be waiting for it to go away completely, okay?” 

“Yeah. Okay,” Gabriel said unsteadily. “I-I’ll work on that.”

Sam could see that the archangel was nearly at his limit of sharing and caring for the moment, so he gave him a soft smile and squeezed his hand gently before letting go. “Let’s go watch some more movies huh?”

“Yeah. Okay,” Gabriel said relieved that this was over and when they got downstairs, he claimed the as yet unused chair, leaving Sam and Dean alone on the couch so he could get some space after all that.


	19. Chapter 19

After a few more movies, Dean and Bobby went to bed and Sam and Gabriel winged off to their clearing to do their wings before continuing to work with Sam’s grace. Sam briefly considered starting while facing each other, but decided against it. Not only would it mean a level of premeditation that he wasn’t comfortable with, not to mention that Gabriel was surely uncomfortable with, but he also couldn’t reach the ends of Gabriel’s wings with them outstretched like that, so he sat down with his back to Gabriel. Gabriel went to work, while wrapping his own wings around Sam. This time went much like the last before they settled in to work on Sam’s grace camo. 

Gabriel pulled Sam in and out a few times before he let him get to work and they sat there for about eight hours. Until the sun came up, before Gabriel started trying to pull Sam out of it. When squeezing his hands didn’t work. He tried to talk Sam out of it. That too was useless so he smirked and used his grace to toss Sam into the cold brook. That worked. Sam woke gasping and wincing as he pulled himself out and dried himself off. “That was…uncomfortable,” Sam said painfully, rubbing his chest. 

Gabriel knew he meant more than just the sudden cold water. “Being yanked out of your grace like that is slightly painful. Sorry. It was either that or going in after you,” Gabriel said with a shrug. As fun as it was to throw Sam in the water, the fact that it caused him pain, wasn’t so fun. 

“No. That’s okay. Thank you,” Sam said quickly, remembering what Gabriel had said about what would happen if he had to go in after him. There were quite a lot of things, especially after their talk yesterday, that he definitely didn’t want Gabriel to see. 

“You’re welcome. It took so long to bring you out, your wings are probably getting pretty itchy now,” Gabriel pointed out and Sam grimaced at the reminder, and quickly took his shirt off and turned his back to the archangel. “Hey look. You’ve got just a hint of feathers now,” Gabriel said cheerfully as he took a look at the hunter’s back. 

“I do?” Sam asked excitedly as he reached back trying to feel them. Gabriel took his hand and guided it to one of the few he would be able to reach and Sam could definitely feel the tips of feathers breaking through. “Can you tell what color they’ll be?” he asked. 

“Not yet. Can’t see enough of them to tell. I can tell they are a darker color, but that’s it,” Gabriel told him. 

“Like black? What does that mean to have dark wings?” Sam asked just a little worried. He’d always associated light colors with goodness and dark colors with evil. 

Gabriel snorted in amusement. “Nothing at all. Wing color in angels is no different than hair or eye color in humans,” he told him. “I wonder if your human dna will transfer over to your wings,” Gabriel mused. “That would be interesting to see if they match your hair or your eyes.”

“Why do I suddenly feel like an experiment?” Sam joked as he leaned back into Gabriel’s hands as the archangel brought his own wings around for Sam. 

“Why, because you are, my dear Samsquatch,” Gabriel replied cheekily, even as he felt the intense emotions wash over him. Apparently, Sam felt the same, because there were no more rejoinders coming from him either. A few minutes later, when Gabriel shifted forward and began pressing soft tender kisses in a line across Sam’s shoulder and up his neck, Sam let out a blissful sigh as he let his head fall back on Gabriel’s shoulder, letting it loll to the side, looking towards the brook so Gabriel could get a better angle. 

When Gabriel was done with Sam’s wings, his hands trailed around to Sam’s front, roaming slowly over the hunter’s chest and stomach. After a few minutes of that, Sam couldn’t hold back anymore and turned in Gabriel’s arms, immediately capturing his mouth in a kiss and deepening it, and Gabriel returned it eagerly. The archangel didn’t even realize how out of hand things were getting until he suddenly felt a draft and realized that both of their pants had disappeared, just a second before he was blasted a few feet away by a red-faced Sam. Gabriel just snapped his fingers with a chuckle and replaced both of their pants, Sam’s a neon pink in revenge. 

“Oh god. Gabriel…I…I’m sorry…I didn’t mean…oh god…”

“Sam!” he called to get the hunter to stop babbling. “Relax. Remember what I said back at the beginning of all this about how we were going to have to get over embarrassment with each other? These things happen. No need to get all worked up over it.”

“I…still…I’m sorry,” Sam said looking down, still beet red. 

“At least I know where your mind goes,” Gabriel couldn’t help but tease with a chuckle and Sam just groaned and put his head in his hands. It was true that ever since their deep conversation earlier, he had found himself considering the idea of Gabriel naked, but at this point it was more curiosity than sex. He had just gotten lost in the desire of the moment. Even if it had been intentional and mutual, he probably would have freaked out over it. 

It wasn’t until he managed to overcome his embarrassment enough to pick his head out of his hands before he noticed the color of his new pants. “Neon Pink?” he asked in distaste. 

“Consider it reparations,” Gabriel joked and Sam just blushed brightly again and looked away. 

“Geez, Samsquatch. Take a chill pill. Let it go and move on. Someday you’ll laugh about all this too.”

“I doubt it,” Sam grumbled, but tried to get his mind on something else. Anything else. “So how’s my camouflage coming along?” he asked floundering for a topic of conversation. 

“It’s coming. You look like some kind of strange hybrid right now. It’s noticeable now at least, so you’re making progress,” Gabriel told him. 

“It wasn’t noticeable yesterday?” Sam asked with a frown. He’d thought he had been doing well. 

“It was, but only if I looked very closely,” Gabriel told him with a shrug. “Remember. This is gonna take a while,” he pointed out. “Don’t let yourself get discouraged.”

“Yeah. I’ll try,” Sam promised as they settled down next to the brook to watch the sunrise as normal. “Do I really have to wear these monstrosities?” he asked glaring down at his pants. 

Gabriel just laughed loudly and shook his head in exasperation. “You do realize that you can change them yourself right?” 

“Oh. Yeah. I forgot,” Sam said sheepishly as he snapped his fingers and they turned back into blue jeans. 

“Don’t worry. We’ll work more on making your powers second nature,” Gabriel assured him, still chuckling a bit at Sam’s cluelessness. He’d really expected the hunter to snap his fingers and change them the second he noticed. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Sam reached out for Gabriel’s hand and the archangel threaded their finger’s together. Sam realized that they had talked quite a bit about heaven, but not about the other angels. Part of him felt bad bringing up these memories for Gabriel, but he really did feel like he should know. “Can you tell me about the other angels? Not the archangels if that’s too difficult for you, but like…the seraphs and cherubs you said they were called?” 

Gabriel sighed. He too knew that Sam needed to know. They would likely have to deal with seraphs before the fight with the archangels came around. Sam really needed to know more about the archangels too, but he just couldn’t right now. He could manage to talk about the others though, not that it was particularly easy. “Seraphs are the soldiers. They are the armies of heaven. Now they are cold and ruthless and cruel. They are all about efficiency and following orders, no matter how crappy those orders are. The cherubs are a little different. They are more like we used to be than any of the others, but still not nearly as much. They are the ones tasked with watching over humanity until the end comes. Cupids are cherubs, for example, and they have a lot of boisterous energy.”

The next couple hours was spent talking about the angels, telling a few stories about some of the more memorable moments, how the power structure worked, and most importantly, how to sense if one was around. Sam likely wouldn’t be able to for a while yet, but once he was he would need to keep an eye out, so to speak. By the time they headed back to Bobby’s the embarrassing incident from before was all but forgotten.


	20. Chapter 20

By the end of the day, Sam was having far fewer incidents of losing control of his powers. Every time something happened unintentionally, he would take a few minutes, recenter, and work on his shielding. On the down side, he was finding it harder and harder to stop when he and Gabriel had their moments. It was getting harder and harder to want to stop, and he knew that he was falling hard for the archangel. Part of him kept saying it was too fast, that it had only been a week, and he couldn’t fall in love that fast, but the stupid logical part of his brain kept pointing out that during that week, they had spent every moment together, not even needing a break to sleep. They had bared their souls, shared secrets, shared…everything. When put that way it wasn’t so farfetched. 

It was a few more days before another slip of control, but in a different way this time. Perhaps it was his subconscious taking control of what some part of him wanted Gabriel to know, but it was a morning, just after Sam had finished working on his camouflage, and they were working each other’s wings…well Sam was grooming Gabriel’s wings. Gabriel had already finished, but Sam was just finishing up with the last of the feather’s on Gabriel’s back as their lips were locked together when his mental shielding slipped just enough for Gabriel to hear, “God, I love you.”

Gabriel’s breath hitched as he forced himself not to freeze. He knew that Sam hadn’t realized he’d been projecting and he was determined not to let him know. If he did then he was afraid they would have to talk about it, and he didn’t think he could take that. He was fighting hard enough not to just disappear on the spot. Thankfully, the hitch of breath could just as easily be due to their activities, and Sam was finishing up, so he just put his wings away and ended the kiss as quickly as he could without letting on, before spinning to watch the sunrise, as they always did. He also forced himself not to react any differently when Sam took his hand, while internally he was a mess. 

Gabriel breathed deeply, glad that Sam had seemed to realize that he had something on his mind and wasn’t much in the mood for conversation. That or this was just one of those times where they sat in silence as they often did. He suspected it was the former though, and wondered when exactly the hunter had managed to read him so well. Every instinct he had was telling him to run. As far and as fast as he could. He had given Sam the building blocks he needed. Sam would manage without him. He stopped that thought in its tracks though. No. He was done running. This was his soulmate. This was his chance. And the last thing he wanted was to screw it up. No. He would stay. And he was running out of time to come to terms with the idea. If Sam wanted to take things farther, but he kept holding back, it would put a wedge there. One that would make things more difficult to overcome later. One that could prove to be their undoing. He would have to go all in. And soon. 

He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel the same way about Sam. That was what made this so hard. He knew that Sam…Sam could be the one to break him, once and for all. There would be no coming back from that one. He didn’t think he would WANT to come back from that one. And that scared him more than anything else. He almost wished that Sam was struggling with the emotional part of this as much as he was, but no. Sam’s issues were based on the physical part. The part that came after the emotional part. He would have to get over himself first. Before things went any farther. That was the biggest reason he’d been holding back physically. He didn’t want to risk ruining things by letting the physical part move too fast while he was still holding back emotionally. He set a deadline for himself. When Sam finished camouflaging his grace, Gabriel would make sure to be ready. Even if that meant disappearing for a little soul-searching for a few hours during the day. Actually, that was a good idea. He hadn’t had a moment alone in over a week. It might be helpful to get away for a little bit. 

“Once we head back to Bobby’s, I’m gonna take off for a few hours,” Gabriel told him nonchalantly, trying to make it seem like no big deal. 

“Is everything okay?” Sam asked worriedly. This would be the first time Gabriel had left his side since this whole mess started. 

“Yeah. It’s all good. You’re far enough along in your control that you should be fine for a few hours and if something happens or you need me, I’m only a prayer away. I just…need a little time alone to…to think and stuff.”

“Yeah, okay. I can understand that,” Sam told him with a nod. He couldn’t actually blame the guy, really. He just hoped that was all it was. “You’ll be back though right?” he asked nervously, hoping that Gabriel wasn’t going to run. Not now. 

“Yeah. I’ll be back either by lunch or soon after,” Gabriel promised. “I still have to do your wings and we still have fight training in the afternoons too,” he pointed out. 

“Okay. Sounds good,” Sam said, trying to shake the feeling like something had changed somehow, and hoping that if it had, then it was for the better. 

No sooner than Sam appeared in Bobby’s kitchen, he was there alone. Gabriel had left breakfast on the table at least, and Sam sat down to eat his sundae as Dean and Bobby trudged in following their noses to the bacon. It spoke a lot for how half asleep they were that they were halfway through their breakfast before they noticed the missing person. “Where’s the pixie?” Dean asked around a mouthful of pancakes. 

“He’ll be back around lunchtime. Apparently, my control is good enough now that I can be left unattended for a few hours,” Sam told him. 

“That mean we can go out and do something?” Dean asked hopefully, still feeling very disconnected from his brother. 

“I don’t know that I’d trust me that far,” Sam said with a chuckle. “I mess up around you guys, we can just clean up the mess. I mess up in front of civilians, we’re talking wiping memories.”

“Yeah. Good point,” Dean said sadly, before noticing that Sam seemed to feeling down. “What’s wrong?” he asked. 

“Nothing,” Sam said quickly. Too quickly. 

Dean raised an eyebrow at him. “You and the pixie are fighting?” he guessed.

“No. Nothing like that,” Sam told him, seeing why he would come to that conclusion. 

“Then…” Dean narrowed his eyes as if he could see right through Sam, and given how well he knew him, he practically could. “You have a thing for him, don’t you?” Dean accused. 

Sam looked away and sighed heavily. “Dean…” He tried to get his brother to drop it, but Dean never was good at taking a hint.

“So you’ve got a thing for him and now he’s pulling away and it’s got you all messed up,” Dean said more sure than ever that he was right. 

“Okay. Fine. Yes. You’re more or less right,” Sam snapped annoyed that he couldn’t just let it go. 

“More or less?” Dean asked with a raised eyebrow and Sam sighed again, seeing as he wasn’t going to get out of this. 

“Something I didn’t tell you about this whole me turning into an angel thing, is that it happened because Gabriel and I are soulmates and when two soulmates come into contact with each other and are different beings, the less durable one changes to match the stronger one,” Sam caved and told him. 

“Well if you’re soulmates, then what’s the problem?” Dean asked. 

“There’s not really a problem. Like I tried to tell you. He just would like some time alone to think. He hasn’t had a moment to himself in over a week. And neither have I come to think of it,” Sam said irritably. 

“Okay. Relax,” Dean said holding up his hands in surrender. “I’ll drop it.”

“Good,” Sam said with a note of finality. 

Dean wracked his brain to think of something they could do together to reconnect, but kept coming up blank. Usually they hunted…not an option. Hit a bar…not an option. Watched tv…done too much of that lately. Drove around…he didn’t really trust Sam not to lose control of his mojo and hurt his baby. He finally lit on an idea. It was a pretty crappy idea, but an idea just the same. “So, I was thinking I might go do some work on the car. You coming?” he asked hopefully as he got up from the table. 

Sam looked Dean over for a second, almost confused and then he could see it. He smiled at the thought that his brother was trying so hard to keep some kind of connection with him through all of this, and said, “Yeah. Sure. Somebody’s gotta keep you out of trouble.”


	21. Chapter 21

Dean and Bobby realized how spoiled they had become when lunch time rolled around and Gabriel wasn’t back yet, so they looked to Sam to snap them up their lunch. Sam just rolled his eyes and did so anyway. It didn’t turn out perfect, but it was better than anything they could have made. Sam had at least gotten his size problem mostly under control, though he did still tend more towards larger things. It was a normal kind of large now though instead of a completely out of proportion kind of large. They were just finishing up with their lunch when Gabriel got back, and Sam immediately noticed he looked a lot more relaxed than usual as they headed upstairs to take care of their wings before fight training. 

This time, Sam quickly noticed a difference. Gabriel’s lips were on his neck almost the second they sat down. Before Sam even touched his wings, and the hunter just sighed happily and relaxed into it, as he reached for Gabriel’s wings. He once again turned around as soon as he got to a point in Gabriel’s wings that he could reach from the front, and this time it was Gabriel’s lips capturing his in a deep hungry kiss as he continued working Sam’s wings that were now sprouting quite a few feathers. Always when they had done this before, they had both kept their hips canted back, keeping enough space so that neither noticed their erections, but this time, once Gabriel had finished with Sam’s wings, his hands moved to the hunter’s ass, pulling him forward and rubbing his own erection against Sam’s. 

Sam gasped and pulled away from the kiss for a second and Gabriel bit his lip nervously. “Okay, Sam?” he asked tentatively. It took the hunter a second to push down his nerves and nod, pressing himself back forward and kissing Gabriel passionately again. That question, asked in a mostly normal tone of voice, told him that Gabriel was in control still. That he was doing this because he wanted to, not because he was just lost in the haze of emotion and might regret it later. That was enough to make Sam really consider the matter. He knew he would have to get over it eventually, and it did feel good. He didn’t think he could handle much more than this right now, but it was a first step. 

Gabriel was thinking much the same. He wasn’t quite ready to confess his undying love, but during his soul-searching he had redoubled his determination not to run away. He realized that if this blew up on them, he would be broken either way, so he might as well make it worthwhile. He was getting over his own hang-ups. It was time for Sam to start doing the same. He wanted to really make a go of this now, and that meant moving the physical part forward with the emotional part. He wasn’t really good at talking about his feelings and stuff, but he knew that Sam would get the hint after that conversation they had the other day.

When Sam finished with Gabriel’s wings, the archangel put them away, and Sam resisted the urge to sigh. He knew that this was coming to an end now. Gabriel always pulled away once the wings were no longer in the picture. He was, therefore, quite surprised when Gabriel laid back on the bed, pulling Sam on top of him, moving his lips to Sam’s neck to nip and suck at the skin there. Sam gasped and ground his hips down over Gabriel’s pulling a moan from the archangel, as he arched up into the motion to get more friction. 

Gabriel knew that until Sam’s wings finished their first stage of growth, he wouldn’t be able to tuck them away and thus it would be very uncomfortable for him to lie on his back, which is why he pulled Sam on top of him. He also hoped it would make the hunter more comfortable with charting this new territory if he were in control, and it seemed to be working. His hands moved over Sam’s back and ass as they moved together. Neither making any motion to move things any further, just rubbing off in their jeans. When Gabriel felt Sam blow, he had been so close that it pushed him over the edge as well and Sam kissed him softly and slowly one more time before sliding off to lay next to him on the bed, plopping to his back at first before wincing and shifting to his side, curled up against Gabriel. The archangel chuckled. “That’s why I pulled you on top,” he said amusedly as Sam shifted around trying to get rid of the discomfort in his wings. “Here. Let me,” Gabriel said as he reached behind Sam and started straightening the feathers that he had mussed up and Sam relaxed as the discomfort faded. 

“Gabriel…” Sam started to say, but then trailed off. He wasn’t really sure what he wanted to say, but he still felt like something should be said. When Gabriel noticed how he seemed to have lost his train of thought, he lifted his head and gave the hunter a short kiss. 

“There’s no need to analyze things right now. Just go with the flow for the time being, okay?” Gabriel asked hopefully. Analyzing things would push them into a territory he wasn’t quite comfortable dealing with out loud yet. He had no illusions that it would last for long. Sam just had to analyze everything, all the time, but if he could put it off for a little while, it would definitely be preferable. 

Sam got the hint though. Something had changed for Gabriel. Something big, and he had come to a decision, but wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. Sam could give him that. He remembered what Gabriel had said about Sam being his soulmate and not wanting to mess things up, and not jumping into something before he was ready, so Sam took all this as Gabriel saying that he was ready, which was just the way the archangel intended it. “Okay. I can do that,” Sam promised, leaning over to kiss Gabriel again. 

“Incidentally, I can see what color your wings are going to be now if you want to know,” Gabriel tried to change the subject, and get his mind to stop dwelling on the intimacy of the position they were now laying in. 

“Really? What color are they?” Sam asked curiously. 

“They are a nice chestnut brown. They match your hair nearly exactly,” Gabriel told him. 

“So, you were right then.”

“That or it’s coincidence. It’s not like I have any other test subjects around,” Gabriel quipped before squeaking a bit as Sam’s fingers dug into his side playfully at being called a test subject. 

“Why can’t I put them away like you can?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Because they aren’t formed enough to operate on that plane yet. Once the first section is completely grown in and you can move them, I’ll teach you how to tuck them away, but until then, you just have to deal with it.”

“Will that be before or after I’m able to create my own oils?” Sam asked hoping for a time frame. If things were going to be moving forward between him and Gabriel, it would be annoying if he couldn’t lay on his back at all. 

“Maybe a few days before. The way it works, the first layer of the wing forms, and then the oil glands grow into it,” Gabriel explained. “As the wings continue to grow, you get more freedom of movement until finally they are strong enough to fly.”

Sam considered that for a moment. He had been getting better at distinguishing the feeling of flight when flying with Gabriel, and he definitely looked forward to being able to do it for himself. As far as being grown enough for them to be able to be tucked away he was torn. On one hand, he wouldn’t need Gabriel to care for his wings nearly as often, and he worried that they would lose this without that impetus. That worry wasn’t nearly as strong as it was before today, of course, but it was still there. On the other hand, moving forward would be rather difficult without him being able to lay on his back. He appreciated being able to keep control this time, but as far as other things go, he was nowhere near secure enough in himself to do so. 

After a long silence, Gabriel kissed Sam quickly one more time before saying, “Come on. We should get to work.”

“Yeah. Okay,” Sam said partially disappointed that this moment was ending, and hoping that it wasn’t just an aberration and that he could have another one. Fight training was going well. He was learning how to work his powers in with his fighting, and Gabriel had already told him that he would be a match for a less experienced seraph. He’d said that if Sam kept improving at the same rate, he would be a match for any seraph by the time his powers caught up to their level which would be in a week or so. 

After dinner, they sat down to watch a couple movies with Dean and Bobby as was becoming routine. Gabriel kept his distance though. For a different reason this time. It would be too hard to resist touching Sam right now, and he wasn’t sure how much the hunter wanted his brother and surrogate father to know about them. He noticed the frown from Sam though and decided to talk to him about that when they disappeared for the night. 

Sam, for his part, was wondering if Gabriel was rethinking everything that happened between them when he sat on the other side of the room. He wasn’t about to bring it up in front of the others though. He wasn’t sure if he should bring it up at all to be honest. The apologetic look Gabriel shot him just made his insecurities even worse though.


	22. Chapter 22

Sam and Gabriel had gotten into the habit of ducking out once it was time for them to take care of Sam’s wings at night since they were both more comfortable doing so out in the clearing. Once they were there, Gabriel didn’t start kissing Sam at first, nor did he bring his own wings around. He wanted to address the issue from this evening first. Sam felt his anxiety grow for a moment until Gabriel started speaking. “Sorry for keeping my distance after dinner. I wasn’t sure how much you wanted your brother to know and I didn’t know if I could keep myself from letting on if I was next to you.”

Sam gave a relieved sigh at those words. “That’s okay. I don’t mind if Dean knows though. I kinda told him the rest of the soulmate stuff already,” Sam explained. 

“Okay. Good then,” Gabriel let out a heavy breath. Talking about these things just made them more real and the fact that Sam was telling his family made it even more so. He was good though. The urge to run was still there of course, but it was getting easier and easier to ignore. He did want to get his mind off of this now that they had any misunderstandings cleared up so he brought his wings around and started kissing over Sam’s neck and shoulders, signaling the end of the conversation. 

Sam chided himself for being silly, as he relaxed into the archangel’s ministrations and ran his fingers through Gabriel’s soft feathers. Gabriel didn’t need to use words to explain himself. Sam understood just fine. Not that the words wouldn’t be nice to hear at some point, but he could give Gabriel time. Let him get used to this before he started trying to put it into words. This was everything he ever wanted. Even before he knew he wanted it. As difficult as all this was to deal with, he couldn’t not be glad that he had brushed against Gabriel’s hand back at that college. It was more than worth it. Sam had a brief thought to wonder when he had gotten so accepting of things and wonder if it was an angel thing, but then Gabriel found that sweet spot on his neck and he just didn’t care anymore. 

After Sam turned around and Gabriel finished with his wings, one of the archangel’s hands was moving over Sam’s ass, but the other was running through his hair and over his face tenderly, and Sam could feel everything Gabriel couldn’t bring himself to say yet. Once Gabriel’s wings were away, Sam’s hand moved down to Gabriel’s ass to pull him closer and they ended up in much the same position they had earlier that afternoon, except this time under the stars in a place pretty close to paradise. Once they were spent, Sam settled to his side next to Gabriel, propped up on his elbow as one hand traced over Gabriel’s chest and stomach. 

As much as Sam wanted to stay like this all night, he knew that he had to get to work soon. He could feel his grace now and feel how much it was growing. He needed to finish hiding it while they still had time. That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy this for at least a little while first. He knew that he would need to keep the conversation light to keep Gabriel comfortable like this though, so he asked, “So since I’m almost done with my camo, what will we be working on next?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Next we’ll be working on temporal theory,” Gabriel told him. “The manipulation of time. You’ll be able to do so on a limited basis within the next week or so, which means you need to know the theory behind it.”

“So I would be able, for example, to go back and save my mother from the demon,” Sam said hopefully.

“Nope. Sorry kiddo. No can do. The first law of temporal displacement. Can’t change the past. Anything you do in the past, you will have already done, but since we know your mother is dead, we won’t be able to save her, see.”

“Is that like a rule type law or…” Sam asked. It’s not like they weren’t breaking rules left and right anyway. What was one more if it could save his mother. 

“No. It’s a scientific law. It will never work, no matter what you do. It’s the universe’s way of protecting itself. Let’s say, for example, you were able to save her. Your life would be totally different. We never would have met at that college. You never would have become an angel to be able to save her, and we would have a paradox that could end all of existence.”

“Oh,” Sam said sadly.

Gabriel lifted his head to give Sam a comforting kiss. “If I could give her back to you, I would,” he said sincerely. 

Sam gave a sad smile. “I know, Gabriel. Thank you.” 

“But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let’s finish this up first,” Gabriel said sitting up, prompting Sam to do the same thing as his lips twitched slightly in amusement. It seemed that Sam had gotten a little too close to the dreaded feelings.

Gabriel reached out and took Sam’s hands and the hunter sank into his grace with practiced ease. It was only about an hour before he came out of it though. “It won’t take anymore,” he told Gabriel. 

“Okay, good. So, the first stage is done. Now you just need to sort of ‘wrap’ the pagan essence around the outside. You’ll probably need to go back in every so often and do some maintenance until it stops growing, but I’ll let you know if it gets too thin if you don’t notice,” Gabriel told him. Sam nodded and went back under to do as Gabriel had said until the archangel was pulling him out at sunrise. “Great job. One more night and you should be done for a while.”

Sam beamed at the praise as he turned to give Gabriel access to his back. This time, Gabriel didn’t start with his back. He slid up behind Sam and wrapped his arms around the hunter’s front, running his hands over Sam’s chest and stomach for a few minutes before he pulled back and got started, bringing his own wings around for a beaming Sam. 

This time, when Gabriel put his wings away, he took Sam’s hand on his ass, and brought it around to his hip, pulling them back as he hopefully asked, “Touch me, Sam?” as his lips trailed the hunter’s throat. When Sam’s hand moved tentatively over the bulge in Gabriel’s pants, the archangel moaned and moved his own hand to Sam’s hard length. After a few minutes, during which they had repositioned so that Gabriel was lying flat on his back and Sam on his side next to him, Gabriel decided to push his luck. “Take it out, Sammy?” he asked breathlessly and Sam froze for a moment. Gabriel didn’t change his own motions over Sam’s cock though as he then said, “You don’t have to. It’s okay.”

Sam hesitated for another minute but then decided that he wanted to. He was nervous, sure, but he did want to. He popped the button and slid Gabriel’s zipper down before reaching into his shorts and pulling his length out, getting a low moan from the archangel as he pumped it experimentally. “Mmm…Can I?” Gabriel asked fiddling with Sam’s button to make it clear what he was asking. 

“Oh, God, yes, please,” Sam breathed out as his hand moved faster over Gabriel’s cock and the archangel wasted no time in freeing the hunter from the confines of his jeans before using his other hand to pull Sam down for a hungry kiss. When Sam spilled over, he moaned Gabriel’s name, which pushed him over the edge as well. As they were coming down, Sam let slip an, “I love you, Gabriel,” almost inaudibly. He didn’t realize what he’d said, until Gabriel froze and Sam’s eyes went wide. “Shit…I’m sorry…”

“Sam, stop. Don’t…don’t apologize,” Gabriel shook off his stupor enough to say. “I…I’m not good with words, Sam, but…but you should know…that I…I…” Gabriel’s throat closed up and he couldn’t manage to get the words out, but it didn’t matter. 

“That’s okay, Gabriel. I understand,” Sam said as he leaned down for a soft, tender kiss. He didn’t need to say it. The fact that he tried meant the world to Sam. He would get there. They both would. When it ended, Sam decided not to push his luck and got up, holding his hand out to Gabriel who took it, and they took their usual spot at the side of the brook, watching the sunrise. This time though, Gabriel curled up to Sam’s side and put his head on the hunter’s shoulder as Sam’s arm wrapped around his waist. Sam turned to press a kiss to Gabriel’s head before he turned back to watch the sunrise with his angel.


	23. Chapter 23

Gabriel broke the long silence with a quiet, “Thank you, Sam.”

Sam blinked, shocked for a moment. Everything Gabriel had done for him and he was thanking him? “For what?” Sam asked baffled. 

“For being so patient with me with all this,” Gabriel said uncomfortably. 

“You don’t have to thank me for that, Gabriel,” Sam said pulling him close and pressing a kiss to his temple. “You’re being just as patient as me.”

“Yeah, but that’s different,” Gabriel told him. 

“Why is it different?” Sam asked despite knowing what the answer would be, but wanting to make a point. 

“Because your discomfort is with the physical stuff. To push someone into something they aren’t ready for physically is despicable.”

“Yeah, I get that, but why should it be any different pushing someone into something they aren’t ready for emotionally? Not ready is not ready,” Sam pointed out. 

“Maybe, but pushing someone physically can lead to emotional distress too,” Gabriel countered. 

“And pushing someone emotionally can have physical symptoms just as easily,” Sam was unwilling to give up his point.

Gabriel opened and closed his mouth a few times, but couldn’t for the life of him think of a counterargument to that one. “Yeah…well…thank you anyway,” he finished. 

“You’re welcome,” Sam said earnestly, before adding his own, “Thank you, too.”

“You’re welcome, too,” Gabriel said with a bit of a chuckle. “I’m gonna take off once I drop you off again, but I’ll be back around lunchtime, just like yesterday,” Gabriel took the chance to say. 

“Okay,” Sam said with a nod, giving the archangel a reassuring squeeze. He knew that Gabriel had a lot to deal with and it was a lot easier to get your head on straight when you were alone. In fact, he definitely planned on getting some alone time himself while Gabriel was gone. 

It didn’t end up working out the way either of them planned though. Gabriel dropped Sam off and left, leaving breakfast on the table, but about the time they finished with their breakfast, Sam felt a tightening in his chest and his skin started prickling and he doubled over in pain, gasping out, “Gabriel!”

It was less than a second before Gabriel appeared long enough to grab Sam and take him back to their clearing. “It’s okay, Sam. We’re back in the clearing. Everyone is safe. Drop your shielding,” Gabriel coaxed him. 

Sam gasped in pain for a few seconds and released it as a bright light filled the clearing and they were left standing in a small crater for a moment before Gabriel snapped his fingers and fixed everything to just the way it had been before. “What…what was that?” Sam asked even as his powers went haywire without the block up. 

“Just a growth spurt,” Gabriel told him. “Your shielding couldn’t hold it. You’ll have to rebuild them.”

Sam, still panting, breathed out, “Yeah. Okay,” as he closed his eyes and got to work. He was a least fairly well practiced at this part, having been adjusting it daily and it only took him about half an hour to have it back in place taking into account his new level of power. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed something he hadn’t last time. “What…I mean…you’re…” Sam couldn’t quite manage to put it into words even as he looked around, jaw dropped. “Everything is…”

“Glowing?” Gabriel asked with a knowing smile. 

“Y-yeah,” Sam stuttered. 

“You’re seeing on the ethereal plane now. Souls, grace, everything. It’s beautiful huh?” Gabriel asked sliding up next to him and slipping his hand in Sam’s as the hunter’s wonder gave new meaning to what had become commonplace for Gabriel long ago. It was like seeing the world through a child’s eyes. 

“Wow…yeah…beautiful,” Sam said breathlessly as he tried to reconcile the new level of input in his mind. He lifted Gabriel’s hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it before turning to look at the archangel again and his hand reached out to run through Gabriel’s hair before cupping his cheek. “You’re beautiful,” he breathed, as he slowly lowered his head to kiss Gabriel softly and deeply. 

Gabriel’s breath hitched at the utter devotion in Sam’s voice and he snaked his arms around Sam’s neck and plastered himself against the hunter, returning the kiss with just as much fervor. They didn’t break apart until they needed air, and Gabriel pressed his forehead against Sam as their breaths mingled in the slight space between their lips. “As much as I would love to continue this, we should probably get back. The others are probably pretty worried by now.”

Sam groaned and leaned forward, pressing another kiss to Gabriel’s lips, but keeping this one short, knowing that the archangel was right. “Yeah, okay. Let’s head back,” he said as they parted again. 

They reappeared back in Bobby’s kitchen to find both hunters sitting worriedly at the table, the remainder of their breakfasts forgotten. Once they noticed that Sam and Gabriel were back, Dean jumped to his feet and grabbed Sam as if looking him over for injuries. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Just a little power surge,” Gabriel answered for him, seeing that Sam was too occupied staring at Dean to answer. “Nothing to worry about. Just had to get him out in the open before he blew.”

“Sam?” Dean asked noticing that Sam wasn’t paying any attention. “What’s going on? What’s with the staring? Sam!” Dean smacked him on the arm with the last call of his name and Sam snapped out of his stupor. 

Gabriel laughed. “Nothing to worry about. He’s just seeing souls now. It’s a lot to take in at first.”

“Um…yeah…what he said,” Sam said managing words again before Bobby became the object of his staring and the old hunter shifted uncomfortably under the attention, but refrained from calling him out on it. He couldn’t even comprehend trying to get used to something like that, so he would deal with it. 

“I’m gonna head back out,” Gabriel told Sam, moving into his line of sight to get his attention. “Just call if you need me.”

“Yeah…okay,” Sam said with a smile as he leaned down to kiss Gabriel again, and the archangel tensed imperceptibly, but allowed it, despite the other people in the room. Sam, thankfully, kept it short and chaste and Gabriel disappeared with a fond smile once he pulled back. 

“So, I guess things are worked out with you two huh?” Dean asked. 

“Yeah. They are,” Sam said with a grin, even as he was still staring at his brother. 

“You know that’s creepy, right?” Dean said as he shifted under the stare. 

“Sorry. It’s just…” Sam trailed off. 

“What…what’s my soul look like?” Dean asked, despite the fact that he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know the answer. 

“Bright. White. Warm,” Sam told him, not really sure how to put it into words, but those were the closest he could think of. 

Dean raised a surprised eyebrow at that. He wouldn’t have thought of himself as having a bright soul. Not after everything he had done and seen. Bobby wasn’t even going to chance asking the question. He was pretty sure there were some things that people weren’t meant to know and this was one of them. He didn’t want to know. 

As Sam looked around the house, he could see what Gabriel meant now about humans surrounding themselves with a dead world. With the exception of the two souls in the room, everything was so dim and cold. It was a little unsettling. It was almost like suddenly losing a sense you had just gained. That was one of the reasons that Sam spent so much time staring at Dean and Bobby for the rest of the morning. It made it seem less like a dream. 

When Gabriel returned at the end of lunch, he quickly called off the fight training for the day. “With as distracted as you are, someone could really get hurt, and we wouldn’t get much done anyway,” he reasoned. Sam opened his mouth to apologize, but Gabriel cut him off. “Don’t even think about it. It’s perfectly natural to take a little time to regain your equilibrium after such a large shift. Instead, why don’t I teach you how to read souls?” he suggested. 

“Read souls? Like reading a book?” Dean asked nervously, not sure if he wanted his brother to have so much insight into him. 

Gabriel chuckled. “No. More like reading an aura. The level of light and warmth tell you how much goodness is in a person’s soul and the color is similar. Like, I always find my marks by their souls. If the soul is cold and black, then I go digging in their mind to find out what they’ve done and pay them back for it. If their soul is dim, it can mean something like illness, mental or physical, or extreme levels of guilt, at which point the color needs to be taken into consideration to make a determination about what kind of person they are. Stuff like that.”

“So, a soul that is…what was it…bright, white, and warm…means…” Dean asked curiously. 

“A righteous man,” Gabriel said, knowing that no one else would pick up on the double meaning. He might have been asking about a description of Bobby’s soul, but the old man’s was a little dimmer, speaking of a lifetime of guilt. It was nearly as white and warm as the righteous man’s soul though and that was no mean feat. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Gabriel explaining all the ways souls could differ from each other and how to identify someone by their soul. Dean and Bobby made no move to leave, nor did either Sam or Gabriel ask them too, so consequently they now knew more about the soul than any human alive.


	24. Chapter 24

True to Gabriel’s word, Sam finished with his camouflage by the time the sun rose the next morning and Gabriel gave him a book from his library on temporal theory, before it was completely forgotten about in the passion they got lost in while grooming their wings and for a good while after. By the time they were watching the sun rise again, they were curled up together next to the brook as Gabriel explained the basic principles and told Sam where he could find them in the book. 

Over the course of the next few weeks, Sam got better and better with the temporal theory, to the point where Gabriel started letting him make short hops, with supervision of course. Sam was now about the level of a normal seraph and could go up to about fifty years with some effort. It was extremely difficult and not recommended to go farther. “So, no going to the old west?” Sam joked.

“Well technically you COULD. It would just take nearly all of your power which would leave you in a pretty bad state. Once you’re fully powered up though, there is no limit. You wanna go watch the pyramids being built, you can. You wanna go party with Caligula? Have at. You want to roast marshmallows while Rome burns? Go ahead. Right now though, you should know your limits.”

Once Sam had a solid grasp on temporal theory, Gabriel moved him on to dimensional theory, which was a lot more difficult and time consuming. Sam’s power was growing at a steady rate though, and he would soon be able to create limited dimensions, so Gabriel needed to be sure he wouldn’t get himself in trouble. There was a lot to consider when creating a new dimension, and not just the calculations. Sam ended up learning a whole new kind of math that he was sure was far beyond humanity still. He was glad that this whole archangel upgrade came with a brain upgrade too or he would never have been able to keep up. 

Sam was surprised to find that Gabriel made an excellent teacher as they spent their nights pouring over books that were probably older than the earth itself, by use of a conjured light. They could usually be found lying side by side on their stomachs among the flowers, propped up on their elbows with a thick book in front of them and lollipops hanging out of both their mouths. It seemed like they had barely gotten started by the time Sam’s wings were able to create their own oils. They still groomed each other once a day, just for the connection though, and Gabriel showed him how to put them away so that he could lay on his back again. 

It wasn’t long after that milestone, when they were sitting there grooming each other’s wings, while Gabriel kissed along Sam’s neck and shoulders when the archangel whispered, “I love you, Sam.”

If it hadn’t been for Sam’s increased hearing, he wouldn’t have even heard it, but when those words spilled from Gabriel’s mouth, Sam’s breath hitched and he spun around to kiss Gabriel deeply, wings forgotten. When they broke for air, Sam whispered back, “I love you, Gabriel. Always.”

“Always,” Gabriel echoed, as he captured Sam’s lips with his own again and pushed him onto his back, straddling his waist as their pants disappeared. Sam had gotten over his hang-ups with being naked together weeks ago, but they still hadn’t crossed the final line. As Gabriel’s lips trailed down Sam’s chest he asked, “Let me take you Sammy?” 

If Sam hadn’t known for a long time how Gabriel had felt, he might have wondered if Gabriel had said what he did to get in his pants, but he knew better. Gabriel had gotten over the last of his hurdles and he was asking Sam if he was ready to let go of his own. Even if Sam had been planning to say no, the warm mouth that suddenly wrapped around his cock would have thrown that thought right out of his head. “Yes, Gabriel. Take me,” he whispered. No sooner than the words were out of his mouth, he felt a long finger press inside him and he immediately gasped as Gabriel went right for the sweet spot. 

As they lay curled together among the flowers in the meadow with the rising sun as a backdrop, Sam felt the tears fill his eyes and he turned to kiss Gabriel slow and sweet. “I love you, my Samshine,” Gabriel whispered pressing a gentle kiss to Sam’s chest. 

“And I love you, Gabriel,” Sam said with a blissful grin, happy to finally be able to both say and hear those words. 

Over the next few months, Sam learned more and more about being an angel as his powers grew. Gabriel had a lot of fun teaching him how to fly especially. They often roped Dean and Bobby in on those lessons, having Sam sense them and fly to them when they were in different places around the salvage yard. It ended up devolving into a rather amusing game of tag, that the humans obviously lost. 

Sam tried to keep his brotherly bond with Dean alive as much as possible, but their lives were too different now to be as close as they once were. It took a while for them to accept it and stop pushing things, but eventually Dean got back on the road hunting. Sam was only a prayer away if he needed anything though, be it heals or just some company at a bar on some nights. Sam always made a point to spend at least a few evenings a week hanging out with his brother, no matter what else he was doing. 

Dean had starting teaming up with Jo when he needed an assist. Since she knew about his brother being an angel there wasn’t as much to explain when they needed a bail out or some heals. Within a few months, they were running together regularly and were even a couple, something that Sam didn’t hesitate to tease them about. He really had been hanging out with Gabriel too much. Unlike the irascible archangel though, he wasn’t much for pranks. Oh he could retaliate with the best of them, but he rarely started it, and after getting his ass handed to him a few times, Dean didn’t usually either. 

Gabriel found the new arrangements to be far easier on him as well. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the hunters. It was just that he and Sam were able to get more done this way, and Sam’s learning was coming along at a much faster pace. By the time he had fully come into his powers, Sam finally had a good grasp on dimensional theory, after ten months of intense study. It had been so intense that even Sam, consummate bookworm that he was, groaned when Gabriel pulled out another book called Temporal Dimensional Theory. Gabriel laughed at his reaction. “Don’t worry so much, Samsquatch. This one isn’t as bad. It’s mostly about putting together what you already know. There are a few different rules you need to know, and how to change the passage of time or even loop time within a separate dimension, but it’s not nearly as difficult as the dimensional theory.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that, Gabriel,” Sam threatened with his own laugh. “Is that the last thing I have to learn?” he asked hopefully. 

“Oh, kiddo. You’re gonna be learning for the rest of eternity. As far as major things go, this is almost the last. Once this is done we’ll start on larger scale creation. Things like ecosystems, stars, solar systems, etc. We’ll need to work within other dimensions for the time being to avoid drawing unwanted attention, but it is an important thing to know. That’s more hands on and fun though. This is the last of the heavy bookwork, and that I can promise.”

Sam just shrugged. At least Gabriel always managed to make even the driest theory seem interesting. He could deal with one more section. As Gabriel had promised, it only took a couple months to get through it, and they started on the fun stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The other angels will come into the picture in the sequel, and Sam will get his first look at heaven. I don't have too many ideas on that one yet, so it will probably be a while before I get to it, but it will come eventually. I'm also considering Destiel in that one too, so Dean can be an angel with Sam, though only a seraph. Not completely decided yet, but accepting feedback on the idea :)


End file.
